Into The Bowels of Hell: A Mass Effect Fanfic
by Awesomeor13
Summary: Alex Kampfer is a survivor of the massacre on Midoir, veteran of both Elysium and Torfan, and now Lieutenant on the SSV Normandy. When a rogue spectre kills another spectre and brings about an attack on Eden Prime, Alex and Commander John Shepard must fight to bring him and his army of geth down. Alex finds a certain comfort in his life, a female quarian by the name of Tali'Zorah.
1. Chapter 1

**Just so other readers know I had to change the title of my fanfic, because somebody else already published a fanfic with the same title. So this is the same story, it's just the title is different. This is a Mass Effect fanfic with a character I created several months back named Alex Kampfer. Don't worry Shepard is still in the story. This Shepard is a spacer/war hero. My character is a colonist/war hero/ruthless soldier. Also he will have a relationship with Tali. This story is from his perspective. Hope you enjoy the first chapter.**

Into The Bowels of Hell

Chapter 1

When it all started for me it was an average day on the Normandy. I was a lieutenant then. The year was 2183 and humanity was itching to get a spot on the council. Many of the other species in the galaxy felt that it was too early for the humans to get a position.

"Alex." Shepard said to me as I was gazing at the galaxy map. "Come on we have to head up to the bridge with Nihlus."

"Alright" I replied "Let's head up."

We arrived at the bridge at the same time our pilot Joker was heading towards a mass relay. Within a second we were already halfway across the galaxy.

"Everything is checked. Our drift is just under 1500 kph." Joker said

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased with you." Nihlus replied before leaving the bridge.

Joker then said "I hate that guy."

Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko was sitting next to Joker. "I don't get you Joker." he said.

"What"

"Nihlus just gave you a complement. So you hate him?"

"Remember to zip up your jumpsuit when you leave the restroom, now that's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy hitting a target the size of a pinhead in half a second. Now that's amazing."

"Remember Joker the council funded this project. They have the right to send someone to keep an eye on their envestment."

"I'm fine with them funding the project, but I don't think they needed to send a spectre. Besides spectres are nothing but trouble. Call me paranoid."

I then said "You are paranoid Joker."

Shepard said "I agree, you always expect the worst Joker."

Then Captain Anderson spoke over the intercom. "Joker. Status report."

"Everything is in check, and stealth systems are engaged."

"Good. Now find us a comm buoy and link us to the system. I want reports of the mission sent back to the brass before we land on Eden Prime."

"Aye aye, Captain. Better brace yourself sir, I think Nihlus is trotting your way."

"He's already here. Send Shepard and Kampfer to the comm room for the debriefing."

"Aye aye. You hear that guys?"

"Yeah." said Shepard. He began walking to the comm room as I followed.

When we arrived we saw Nihlus standing in the middle of the comm room.

"Shepard, Kampfer." Nihlus said.

"Nihlus." I replied.

"I was hoping that you two would arrive before the Captain."

"Why."

"I wanted to talk to both of you."

"What about?" Shepard asked.

"Humanity has made quite a place in the galaxy. I'm curious about this colony we're going to, Eden Prime."

"They say it's a paradise like no other."

"So I've heard. But the galaxy is a harsh and dangerous place."

"I'm guessing this isn't a simple walk in the park."

"You're still newcomers, Shepard. Humanity has been able to establish colonies across the galaxy, but can you protect them."

"You know something?" I asked.

At that moment Captain Anderson walks in. "I think it's time we told these two what's really going on."

"Agreed." said Nihlus.

"Commander, Lieutenant. Humanity has been itching to get on the council for years. Our mission to Eden Prime involves a big package we're supposed to retrieve."

"What's the payload?" Shepard asked.

Captain then told us "Our excavators unearthed a Prothean beacon several days ago. We are to arrive at the colony, and pick up the beacon. That's why Nihlus is here."

"I've read the reports about you two. Shepard, you were born on a spaceport. You spent you life traveling the galaxy since your parents were serving in the Alliance. You proved yourself on Elysium by holding your position fighting off Batarian pirates earning a Star of Terra. Kampfer, you were born in a colony called Mindoir. Your parents and friends were killed when you were 13. Batarian slaver pirates hit the colony and you survived when an Alliance patrol found you. Since then you've train in martial arts such as kenpo, judo, jujitsu, and arnis. You were on Elysium too. At age 18 you were at the other end where the Batarians began their assault. You held the position dispute being wounded several times. Two years after you were sent to Torfan were ¾ of your unit died, but you and the rest of your unit took out the made compound where most of the pirates were held up."

"Nihlus has put you two up to be spectres."

I stared at the Captain for a moment then at Nihlus. Realizing that I was going to be a spectre representing humanity it felt like a huge honor.

"I don't know what to say." I said.

The captain said "You should be surprised. If we have two humans in the spectres, we can achieve a spot on the council."

Shepard then said "Good. Now let's..."

Just then Joker interrupted his sentence "Captain."

"Yes, Joker."

"Urgent message coming from Eden Prime. I'm patching a video feed through now."

We look to the monitor to see helmet cam footage of Alliance marines being attack on Eden Prime. A colonist tells us that they are being attacked and request reinforcements. As he finishes his sentence the camera show a giant bug- like ship raining hell upon the colony. Then the video cuts to static.

The Captain then asks Joker to rewind the video to the 38 second mark to look at the giant ship.

"Joker, take us in gently. I think this mission just got more interesting."

I began to wonder who was hitting the colony. Batarians slavers, mercenaries, or biotic extremists. It made me think of Mindoir again. The plains stretched out for miles. I lived in a metallic hut with my parents. My father was a veteran of the First Contact War, he worked as an engineer fixing vehicles on the colony. My mother stayed at home to keep the house clean. I played with my friends on this grassy plateau at the western edge of the colony. I would sneak out of the hut at night to go to the plateau to look at the moon. It was beautiful, but all of that was taken away from me. Those slavers killed my parents, most of my friends, and the rest including my best friend who was also named Alex were captured and tortured by those monsters. The only thing that saved me was the SSV Enstein. The marines got pinned due to the heavy fire power the Batarians were packing. I was the only one saved from that hell by the Alliance.

"Alex, you okay?" Shepard asked as he saw the fire in my eyes.

I told him "I was thinking about Mindoir again."

"Alex, you're serving on the best ship in the Alliance. I'm sure we'll be able to save the colonists."

"Alright. Then let's go save them."


	2. Chapter 2

** I'm putting a notice up on each chapter that I had to change my title since somebody else published a fanfic with the same title earlier this year. I apologize for the confusion. This is where things began to get juicy. Alex Kampfer, John Shepard, Kaiden Alenko, Richard Jenkins, and Nihlus Kryik are now heading towards the colony of Eden Prime. You all know what's going to happen. It'll be a while before I bring Tali into the story. For now this chapter will cover the entire Eden Prime mission.**

We stand in the hangar waiting. We were ready to make the drop. Captain Anderson tells us our objectives.

"When you get down there search the colony for the beacon."

Shepard asked "What about survivors?"

"Survivors are a secondary objective. Your primary objective is the beacon."

Shepard asked me as I was preparing my sniper rifle "Alex are you going with us?"

I told him "You know me. As a sniper it's my top priority to scout the area, so I'll be on my own."

"Alright just be careful."

"Don't worry I'll be fine."

And then I make my jump to Eden Prime. I land on the grass, and then I pull out my sniper rifle. I maneuvered to hill that provided a good view of the colony. I look through my scope to see if anyone was around. I see a group of people moving through the dig site. But these weren't colonists. They were geth.

"Shepard, come in."

"I hear you. What did you find?"

"We're not dealing with pirates, or slavers. These soldiers are geth."

"So that's what they were."

"I don't like this, Shepard. Something big is going on if the geth left the Veil after 200 years."

"I know. We lost Jenkins to some recon drones."

"Dammit! Those fucking rustbuckets!"

"I'll make sure he gets a proper military burial when were finished with the mission."

"Okay. I'll….keep scouting."

"Roger that, Lieutenant."

I was angry. Jenkins wanted to see some real action, and become a spectacle in the Alliance. Now he's gonna put into a coffin six feet underground just because a couple of recon drones got to him. It wasn't fair to him. I always thought he envied me and Shepard for being such prestigious marines. Now he'll never have the chance to become an idol.

Bang! I heard a gunshot coming from the docking port. I went to investigate.

"Shepard, I heard gunfire at the docking port."

"I heard it too. It's probably more geth."

"I'll meet you at the docking port."

"Copy that, Alex."

I headed towards the space when all of a sudden I'm being shot at. Find myself behind a boulder switching from my sniper to my assault rifle. I peeped over the right side of the boulder to see where the geth were. There were three shock troopers that were spread out. I immediately pop from the left side firing at two of the geth troopers. They went down like dominos. The third one was waiting for its rifle to cooldown. I dashed right at it roundhouse kicking its flashlight head. It fell to the ground before I stomped it flashlight head into it. I move downhill to see a hut with survivors. There were 5 of them. One of them approached me.

"Are you here to help us?" the colonist said in a sad way.

"Yes." I replied.

"Thank you. It's just ever since we found that beacon there been nothing but violence."

"It's okay. I was a colonist too. I survived the massacre on Mindoir back in 2170."

"Wait. Your Alex Kampfer aren't you."

"Yep."

"Well I guess now I understand what you went through."

"I guess you do. Now I'm gonna suggest that you and the survivors stay in your hut until Alliance reinforcements arrive."

"Are you sure? The geth are still in this area."

"I'll see to them. Just keep the door locked, and don't make a sound."

"I can't thank you enough."

"There's no need to. I'm just a marine doing his job."

The colonists go back into the hut and seal the door. I continued to move until I see a couple of geth soldiers impaling a colonist on a giant spike. There were no words to describe what I was feeling. They impaled a human being. He was just an innocent colonist who didn't want violence in his life. I immediately shot the geth for their atrocity. I stopped to look at the dead colonist.

"My god." I said to myself "These people wanted a more peaceful life, but instead they get this."

Then I see several other spikes descend. Then these things come off of them. Those things were colonists transformed into husks. I started to shoot them, and before I knew it my rifle overheated. I started to fight them with my martial arts. I punched, kicked, elbowed, and kneed a dozen of those husks. I can't say that I have pride in killing others with my martial arts. After the fight there were two dozen dead husks around me. I picked up my rifle and continued to move towards the docking port. I arrived at the port to find Nihlus…..dead.

"No." I said to myself.

"Alex!" a voice said from a distance.

I turn to look to see Shepard running up to me. He then looks at Nihlus.

"Dammit. Someone killed Nihlus." Shepard said.

Just then we heard somebody behind the storage crates. A dock worker popped out from the back. "Wait don't shoot I'm just a dock worker."

I immediately said "You should be more careful. Sneaking up on us almost got you killed."

"I'm sorry. You're the first I've encounter today who hasn't tried to kill me."

"Do you know what happened here?"

"I was behind these creates when that giant ship showed up. I think those geth were after the beacon. That beacon has been nothing but trouble."

"Who killed Nihlus?"

"There was another turian who showed up. Saren I think his name was. I think him and Nihlus knew each other. As soon as Nihlus turned his back on Saren, he shot Nihlus in the back."

I look at him with persistence to catch Saren. I asked "Where did he go?"

"He went on the transport platform and headed towards the main dock where the beacon is."

"Find some place to hide until Alliance reinforcements arrive."

"Okay." And he left.

I look at the female marine and asked her who she was.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams." the female marine stated.

"Good to have you aboard, Gunnery Chief."

"Alright let's head to the main dock." Shepard told us.

We got on the platform and started to move towards the main dock. When we arrived we were immediately shot at. Geth troopers were pumping off assault rifle rounds while geth juggernauts launched rockets at us. I take cover and pull out my sniper rifle. I pop up to pick a target. I always chose the target that's the furthest that way they're not a problem later. I spot a geth sniper moving at the far edge of the bridge we were on. I take a deep breath and squeeze a shoot off. The round went directly into the flashlight part of its head. I then aim at the juggernaut at the halfway point of the bridge. I took that one out with a head shot too. Then I took cover as Shepard and the rest of the team move up under a hail of fire. I then pop up one more time to pick two more targets. I take out two geth troopers with one shot. The went through one geth head and into the other's. I pull out my assault and charge up while tossing a grenade at a juggernaut."_Boooommm._" The grenade blows off the legs of the juggernaut before I shoot it several times. Ashley moves up and kills three geth with no trouble. She mows them down like they were targets at a shooting range on Earth. I was amazed by her ability to dispose geth.

"Come on you bastards, come get some!" I screamed as I popped up from my cover. I use overkill which allows my assault to shoot for a minute without overheating. I charge up and kill 9 geth including a geth destroyer that showed up. Then I put suppressing fire the other 3 geth that are left. Then Kaiden uses his biotic to toss one over the edge of the bridge while Shepard kills the other 2. We finally reach the end of the bridge only to see that Saren planted several bombs to erase evidence. I start to work on the first one.  
"Shepard, give me some goddamn covering fire." I shout to him.

Shepard replies "Alright! Guys give him some covering fire!"

I break off a panel to see a bunch. It's like the movies where the good guy has many wires to choose from. I remember my dad told me stories about disarming bombs similar to the one I'm trying to disarm during the First Contact War. He said "I always go for the grey wire. It connects to the main power source. Without it, it's useless." I take the advice and pull the grey wire quickly. Thankfully the bomb is disarmed. I tell Shepard "I'm done! Let's move on to the next!"

We move up to a big structure that leads to the main dock. I find the second bomb behind a storage crate. I begin to disarm the bomb. Breaking off the panel and pulling the grey wire while rounds are whizzing past me. We move on to the third. Same story. But I almost died after disarming the forth. When I finished with the forth, a rocket from a geth juggernaut explodes near. I fall to the ground.

"Alex!" Shepard screams as he runs to me. He crouches over to see if I'm okay. The left side of my face was moderately scarred from the shrapnel. "Come on man!"

I can sort of hear him, but my ears were still ringing. I pushed myself up when the ringing stopped. "I'm good." I told him. I got my assault rifle and continued to fight. We reached the main dock where the beacon after all of the brutal fighting.

"Joker, this is Shepard we've secured the beacon. We're ready for a pick up."

Kaiden and Ashley were observing the beacon. The beacon had a dark green aura around.

"I don't it. We found actual working Protean technology." Kaiden said.

Ashley then stated "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up."

Kaiden went to talk with Shepard when Ashley triggered something on the beacon. Something was pulling her towards it. Shepard and I move to help her. Shepard pulls her away as kick her out of the way. Sure it hurts her but at least I saved her. Before I knew it the beacon pulled me so close that I was an inch away. Me and Shepard were lift by the beacon's power. Then these horrific visions were burned into our brains. Then the beacon exploded launching me and Shepard across the dock. Shepard landed near Ashley and Kaiden. I was closer to the beacon so I got further into a wall. I obviously blacked out after that and fell to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys. I had to change my title since somebody else used it. Here's the new chapter. The beacon was destroyed, and Jenkins and Nihlus were killed. The mission went to hell quickly. Once Alex Kampfer and John Shepard have been fully healed they must explain to the council what happened. But their chances of proving Saren as a rogue are slim due to the fact that he's the most successful spectre they have. They must find sufficient evidence to prove to the Council that he has committed treason. A certain C-sec officer seemed like he had something on Saren maybe he could be of use to them.**

I wake up laying on a bed in the med-bay. At first my vision is blurry, my head is pounding, and my body feels like shit. I sit up to see nothing but a blurry room. I grunted in pain as my head pounded. When my vision was clear I saw the ship's doctor, Ashley, Kaiden, and Shepard. Shepard was sitting on his hospital bed rubbing his temples.

"Take it easy, Kampfer. You're in the med-bay now." Doctor Chakwas said to me as I was still grunting in pain.

"Are you okay?" Kaiden asked.

"I'd never thought I'd say this, but think I've finally achieved a headache that's worse than a hangover." I replied.

Shepard then came into the conversation "Well you got hit by two explosions. Not to mention that the second one launched you into a metal wall so I'm pretty sure that could do it to you."

"Very funny." I said in a sarcastic matter "What about you?"

"I just have a slight headache." Shepard said.

"Sorry, I guess I triggered a mechanism on the beacon. You two had to get me out of the way." Ashley said.

"Yeah, we dragged you both back to the ship. I'm amazed that you're alive, Alex. I almost thought that the force from the beacon exploding and smacking into that metal wall would've killed you." Kaiden said.

I then said "Thanks for dragging us back to the ship. And I've survived many horrible things in my life, Kaiden."

"How are these two holding up Doctor Chakwas?" Captain Anderson asked as he walked into the med-bay.

"Shepard is fine, but Alex has suffered some scarring on the left side of his face, and 4 broken ribs. But I've detected a sudden change in their brain activity, and an increase in their rapid eye movement. Something from intense dreaming."

"No, it was vision." I stated.

"We saw death, and destruction. I don't know what it means." said Shepard.

"Well now what's more important is to explain to the Council what happened." Captain replied.

I then said "We've got nothing to hide. Saren organized the attack on Eden Prime and killed Nihlus. He's a traitor who should be put in front of a firing line."

"It's not that simple, Kampfer. Saren's a spectre not to mention that he has a good reputation. It'll be difficult to prove." said Captain Anderson. "We're heading towards the Citadel so get ready."

I asked Doctor Chakwas if I'll be good to go. She said "You should be fine as long as you don't overdo it."

"Alright."

Later I stand with Shepard, Ashley, and Kaiden on the bridge as we head to the Citadel. There we saw the biggest ship in the council fleet. The Destiny Ascension.

"Wow, I've never seen a ship that big!" Ashley said.

Joker then said "Hey, size isn't everything."

"What's the matter Joker? Jealous?" Ashley teased.

"I'm just saying. You gotta have firepower too."

Then Joker speaks to the docking officer over the radio "This is the SSV Normandy requesting permission to dock. Over."

"Permission granted Normandy. Head to docking port 17. Welcome to the Citadel."

We dock and head to the embassy where our human ambassador was arguing with the Council through a hologram. "This is an outrage! The council would step in if a turian colony was attacked by the geth!"

The salarian councilor told him "The turians establish colonies but not on the border of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador."

Then the asari councilor told him "Ambassador Udina, humanity knew the risks when you went to the Traverse."

"What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue spectre! I demand action!" Udina spoke up.

"You do not get to make demands to the Council, ambassador." said the turian councilor.

Then the asari councilor said "Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren. The findings will be discussed at the hearing not before." Then the hologram turns off.

"Captain Anderson, I see you brought only half of your crew." Udina said while looking at us.

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions." Captain Anderson replied.

"I have the reports of the mission. I assume they're accurate?"

"They are, ambassador. And it sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience."

"They are not happy about it. Saren is their top agent. They don't like it when he gets accused of treason."

Shepard then said "Saren is a major threat to every human colony in this galaxy! The council must listen to us!"

I spoke up "Yeah, they can't let this go! Saren attacked a colony with no regrets or remorse! He's a genocidal nutjob like Stalin, sure he hasn't nearly as many people as Stalin but he might kill that many people if the Council lets this bullshit fly!"

Then the ambassador said "Settle down you two. You've already jeopardized your chances of getting into the spectres. The mission to Eden Prime was to test your abilities to get the job done. Instead, Nihlus was killed and the beacon was destroyed!"

Captain Anderson said "That's Saren's fault, not theirs."

Ambassador Udina said "Then we better hope C-Sec finds valid evidence to prove Saren guilty. Otherwise the Council will just use this as an excuse to keep you two out of the spectres. Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things with you before the hearing. Shepard meet us the Citadel Tower. I'll make sure have top clearance."

As Udina and the Captain walked away Ashley said "And that's why I hate politicians."

"Come on. Let's head to the Tower." Shepard said.

We went to the elevator that goes to the Citadel Tower. As we went up we saw the entire Presidium. There was a giant pond with a krogan statue in the center. There were metal bridges with people standing at the edges.

"This is quite a view." Kaiden said.

"It is." Shepard replied.

"You can see everything from up here." said Ashley

"I wonder how much it took to build this." Shepard said.

"This probably took decades to build. It's not a simple design." Kaiden said.

Just then I my ribs began to hurt like hell and I let out a grunt in pain. Shepard looked over at me in concern. "Alex, are you okay."

"Yeah, I'll be good." I grunted.

"You should've stayed on the ship." Kaiden said.

"I said I'll be fine." I told him as I was holding my ribs.

"We're here." Shepard stated.

The elevator door dropped and we walked in. As we went up the first set of stairs we saw a turian executor arguing with a turian C-Sec officer.

"I told you Garrus the investigation is over." the executor said.

"Just give me more time! Stall them!" the C-Sec officer said.

"Stall the Council? Are you joking? Your investigation is done." the executor said.

As the executor walked away the C-Sec officer approached us. "Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the investigation on Saren."

"Did you find anything that could incriminate Saren?" I asked.

"No, but I was close. Maybe the Council will listen to you. I've got to go."

Garrus left and we headed to Council area. The proceedings were already underway.

"You can't let this go unchecked! Saren attacked Eden Prime and had the geth plant bombs to destroy the entire colony!" Ambassador Udina shouted in anger.

"We know that Eden Prime was attacked because of the beacon. But there is no evidence to implicate that Saren was involved." the asari councilor said.

"A dock worker said he witnessed Saren killing Nihlus in cold blood." said Udina.

Then the salarian councilor said "A testimony from a traumatized dock worker is not nearly sufficient enough evidence to support your claims."

A hologram of Saren was present "I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a comrade and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Captain Anderson yelled.

Saren looked at Captain Anderson "Ah, Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false accusations towards me. And these must be your protégés Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Kampfer the ones who let the beacon get destroyed."

"That was your fault. And the only way you could have known is if you were there!" I spoke up.

Saren then just told more lies "When Nihlus died his files were passed onto me. I read the reports and I was unimpressed. But what can you expect from a human."

"You're a coward you know that. You insult us, but you don't have the balls to say those things my face." I shouted in anger.

I looked at that bastard. He fucked up our mission, killed colonists, and killed Nihlus. I was pissed I wanted to tear him apart. I wanted to kill him to atone for the murders he's committed. But my master Ling Midori always told me not to turn into the thing I'm hunting. I try to retain myself.

"Humanity needs to learn its place. You're not ready to join the Council. You two are not even ready to join the spectres." Saren said.

"Shepard and Kampfer's candidacy for the spetres is not the agenda of this proceeding." the asari councilor stated.

"This proceeding has no agenda. The humans are just wasting your time and mine. Saren said.

"Sooner or later you're gonna have to stop hiding behind the Council." Shepard said.

"We're sorry, but there is no evidence to support your claims." The salarian councilor stated.

"There is one thing. The vision these two had when the beacon exploded." Captain Anderson said.

"Are we now allowing dreams as evidence? How can I defend myself against this kind of testimony?" said Saren.

The turian councilor then said "I agree. Our judgment must be made based on evidence and facts, not dreams and illusions."

"Do you have anything more to say, Commander?" the asari councilor asked.

Shepard then said "You've made your decision, I won't waste my breath."

The asari councilor then said "Since there is no evidence to convict, we find that all charges against Saren are hereby dropped. The proceeding is adjourned."

We all walk away in anger. That bastard got away with killing Nihlus and devastating a colony. I guess he will become the next Stalin since the councilor is letting this fly.

"We shouldn't have brought you in there, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made them question our motives." Ambassador Udina said.

"I know Saren. He's working with the geth to destroy the human race. Every colony is at risk. Earth isn't even safe." Captain Anderson said.

"What are we going to do? The Council won't help us. We have to find something that will prove Saren guilty." Shepard said.

"Since he's a spectre, he's untouchable. We have find something that will help us prove our claims." Udina stated.

"What about Garrus Vakarian?" Kaiden asked.

Then Ashley said "Yeah, he was the officer in charge of the investigation. He was arguing with the executor. It seemed like he was onto something."

"I have a contact in C-Sec who can help us find Garrus. His name is Harkin." said Udina.

"Forget it. Harkin got suspended last month for drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with that drunken loser." said Captain Anderson.

"You won't have to. For the sake of this investigation, I'm cutting you out, Captain. I don't want the council to use your past history with Saren to ingnore us." Udina stated.

"I understand, Ambassador. It's probably for the best." Captain Anderson said.

"Now I've got some business to take care of. Captain, meet me in my office later." Udina said as he was walking away.

"Harkin is probably getting drunk in Chora's Den. It's a dingy club on the lower levels of the Ward." Captain Anderson said.

"I thought you said he was a drunken loser." I said.

"Couldn't hurt to go talk to him. If you need anything else, I'll be in the Ambassador's office." The captain said before he left.

We head to Chora's Den. All of a sudden three assassins start shooting at us outside the club. I simply drew out my pistol and killed two of them while Ashley killed the third with her assault rifle.

"Those were Saren's men" Kaiden said.

"He's probably trying to stop us from finding something incriminating." I replied.

Shepard then said "Come on. Let's head into the club and find Harkin."

The doors open and we see a circular bar, a bunch of pole dancers, and a bunch of customers either watching the dancers or getting drunk. Ashley is irritated by the sight "Here we are a million light years from where humanity began and we walk into a sleazy bar filled with men drooling over some half naked women shaking their asses on a stage. I can't whether that's funny or sad."

"I can see why this place is so popular. It's got quite the, uh, view." Kaiden stated as he was looking at one of the dancers.

Ashley then said "Hey, Lieutenant, put your tongue back in your mouth before you trip on it."

As we explore the club we see two krogan having a slightly heated conversation. The krogan bouncer said "Back off, Wrex. Fist told us to shoot you on sight if you showed your face here."

"Well what are you waiting for? I'm standing right here." Wrex, the other krogan snapped back.

"Fist is not coming." The bouncer said.

"This is Fist's only chance. If he's smart he'll take it." said Wrex.

"He's not coming out, Wrex. End of story." The bouncer stated.

Then Wrex said "The story is just beginning." He then looks at us and says "Out of my way humans I have no quarrel with you." He then leaves the bar disgruntled.

"What was all that about?" Kaiden asked.

"I don't know. Let's try to get caught in the middle of it." Ashley replied.

We see a table occupied by a half drunk C-Sec. We approach him and he says "Commander Shepard? Lieutenant Kampfer? Pffft. I could've been a marine instead I joined the Citadel Security. Biggest mistake of my life."

"I'm guessing you're Harkin. Do you know where Garrus Vakarian is?" I asked.

"Sure I know where he is. But first you gotta tell me something." Harkin said.

"What?"

"Did Captain Anderson let you in on his little secret?"

"What secret?"

"The captain used to be a spectre. Bet you didn't know about that. He was the first human given that honor and then he blows it. He went on a mission with Saren and things went so bad that they kicked Anderson out of the spectres. He says Saren set him up. That's why there's tension between those two."

"I wasn't here to learn more about my captain. I just want to know where Garrus is."

"Garrus was snooping around Doctor Michel's office. That's the last I saw of him."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, good, let me drink in peace."

I walk off with the others. Soon the others start to question whether Harkin was telling the truth about Captain Anderson.

"Why didn't he tell us about this?" Ashley asked.

"It's probably not an easy thing to talk about." Shepard said.

"Harkin's a worthless drunk. He's probably fucking with us." I said.

"Probably." Kaiden agreed.

We approached Doctor Michel's office when we here screams. I pull out my shotgun, and the others pull out their pistols. We enter the medical office to see 4 men employed by Fist to interrogate Doctor Michel.

"Where is she?" one of the thugs asks.

"I don't know she left my office this morning." Doctor Michel said out of fear.

"You're lying to us. Tell us now or we'll..." just then thugs notice us and take the doctor hostage.

"Let her go, asshole." I tell the thug pointing his gun at the doctor's head.

Then after the words leave my mouth. Someone shoots the thug in the head. We immediately plug round through the other 3 thugs. We made it look so simple. Then we wondered who shot the thug. Garrus Vakarian pops up and says "Well I didn't expect to see you guys again." then he turned his attention towards and asks "Doctor Michel, are you alright?"

"Yes, I think so." the doctor replies.

"What did these men want from you?" I asked.

"I think they came for the quarian."

"What quarian?"

"There was a quarian who came into my office a couple days. She had been shot in the arm. She said she had evidence against Saren so wanted to set up a meeting with the Shadow Broker to exchange the evidence for protection. Since Fist works for the Shadow Broker, he set up a meeting."

Garrus then said "Not anymore. Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker to work for Saren."

The doctor has an astonished look on her face and says "Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker. That's stupid even for him."

"We have to find out where that meeting is." Shepard said.

"We storm Chora's Den and interrogate Fist." I said.

"But there's gonna be a lot of heavy resistance." Garrus added.

"What about Wrex? That krogan who was fighting with the bouncer." Kaiden said.

"A krogan could come in handy. What do you say, Shepard? Should we get Wrex." I said.

"Definitely." Shepard replied.

We head to the C-Sec Academy to find an officer talking to Wrex. "We've been ordered to bring you in, Wrex."

"I'd love to see you try." Wrex replied.

Wrex sees us and starts walking towards us. "Commander Shepard. I heard that you were gonna take on Fist."

"Yeah, we thought you'd like to tag along." said Shepard.

Wrex looked at us and said "Yes, definitely."

"Well then. Let's go."

We head to Chora's Den. Ashley and Kaiden went back to the ship. We figured they could use they rest. So it was me, Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex.

We entered and we started to receive incoming fire from Fist's thugs. I go to the left side of the club with Garrus while Shepard and Wrex took the right side. I started fire my shotgun at two thugs on the stage above the bar. They fell hitting the counter of the bar. Garrus dispatches three thugs with precise and accurate shots. He had a talent for sharpshooting like I did. We continued to fight our way to the back. Soon a thug pops out from a crate shoots me in the ribs with hammerhead rounds. The worst part was that it was the some spot where I already had 4 broken ribs. The armor stopped them luckily, but I still fell over in pain. Garrus wastes that bastard. Shepard runs over to check on me "Jeez, are you alright?"

"No, the rounds hit my already broken ribs! Fuck!" I shout in pain.

"Wait, your ribs on your right side were already broken?" Garrus asked.

"He broke 4 ribs on his right side on Eden Prime." Shepard told him.

"If he's willing to not go back to the ship and go through firefights with the pain from his ribs, that's pretty tough for a human." said Wrex.

"This hurts like a motherfucker!" I shout in pain. I pushed myself up and said while holding my hand over my ribs "I'm good to go."

"I think should go back to the Normandy, Alex" Shepard said.

"No! I can keep going!" I tell him.

"If you insist." said Shepard.

We continue through the small warehoure in the back of Chora's Den before we're confronted by three dock workers. "You're not going any further than this."

I tell them "You're just warehouse workers. Is it really gonna be worth it when we shoot you down? Think about it."

I had him scared. He saw the look in my eyes. He backed off "Okay, we're going. Just don't hurt us."

They run off, but Shepard saw that I didn't really mean it. I'm good at intimidation, but I don't excessive violence. Sure I get into firefights, but I don't make the enemies suffer. Like I said before my master said "Don't turn into the thing I'm hunting."

We finally reach the room where Fist was making his last stand. He had a turret set up on both side of the room. He was weilding a heavy assault rifle while using his desk as cover.

"You think you guys can take me!" Fist shouted before firing.

The rounds pinged off the sliding metal doors we we're using for cover.

"Shit!" I shout in anger.

I pop out using carnage which allows my shotgun to launch a rocket round. Though not as large or effective as a regular rocket round, it's still gets the job done. The round I launch that destroys one of the turrets. Wrex does the same thing to the other turret since the shotgun was his weapon of choice. Then Shepard and Garrus start to spray rounds at Fist thus destroying his shields. Fist knew he wasn't going to last, so he surrenders. "I surrender! Don't shoot!"

"Tell us where the quarian is." I demanded.

"I don't know where she is. That's the truth." Fist said.

"He's no use to use. Let me kill him." said Wrex.

"No, wait! I know where you might find her."

"Keep talking." said Shepard.

"She said she would only meet with the Shadow Broker himself." Fist said.

"Face to face? Impossible. Even I was hired through an agent." Wrex said.

"Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Even I don't know his true identity. The quarian didn't know that. I told her I would set up a meeting. It's not gonna be the Shadow Broker's men waiting for her. They'll be Saren's men." Fist said.

I yelled at him "You sent that women to her death! You sick bastard!"

Thoughts went through my mind. Was the quarian gonna be okay? What will those men do to her? They're probably cold-hearted like Saren.

"Tell us where that meeting is! Now!" I yell.

"Alright! She's meeting in the alley way near here. It's next to the market area." Fist said.

"We're done here." Shepard said.

Just then Wrex whips out his shotgun and kills Fist.

"What the hell are you doing?" Garrus yelled.

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill Fist. I don't leave jobs have done." Wrex stated.

"His death atones for the many other deaths he brought upon." I said.

"Come on. We have to save the quarian!" Shepard shouted.

We rush back through the club and out the front door. We head towards the alleyway where the deal was occurring. There was a turian and two salarians in armor. The quarian was talking to the turian.

"Did you bring it?" the turian asked.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" the quarian asked.

The turian ran his hand down her left arm "They'll be here. Where's the evidence?"

The quarian slapped his hand out of the way and says "Forget it. The deal's off."

She then threw a stun grenade towards the two salarians and takes cover.

I immediately rush to her aid. I realized that I holstered my weapon in Fist's office. I didn't pull out a weapon. I deliver a jumping side kick to the turian's face. Then I dash over to the two salarians that were recovering from the stun blast. One throws a hook punch, but I catch his arm, punch his stomach, and toss him over my shoulder. I let go of his to focus on the other salarian. I hit his head with a spinning outward crescent kick. He goes down and then the turian gets up off the floor to fight me. He charges me, but I catch his shoulders and driving my right foot into his stomach. Then I fall on the floor sending flying over me as I let go. He gets up to throw punches. I block them and punch his face several times. After several punches I headbutt him and punch him in the stomach. "Iyaaaaa!" I put a lot of energy into that punch and it was enough to make the turian puke. Then to finish him off I deliver a helicopter kick to his face. Shepard and Garrus kill the two salarians that were pulling their pistols and pointing them at me. Shepard, Garrus, the quarian, and even Wrex were staring at me in awe.

"That. Was. Amazing." Garrus said.

"You've got a quad on you, Alex. You made it look simple without using a firearm." Wrex said.

"Jeez, I've known you for a long, Alex. But I've never seen you do that." Shepard stated.

"Grandmaster Midori taught me everything I know about martial arts. I wouldn't be the man I am today if it weren't for him." I told them.

I then turn my attention to the quarian. "Are you alright?" I ask.

"Yes. Fist set me up. I knew I couldn't trust him." the quarian said.

"Don't worry. You're safe now." Shepard said.

"Not here. We should go somewhere safe." the quarian said.

"What is your name." I asked.

"Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." she said.

We head to the human embassy to show Udina the evidence.

**Just so you fans know. It might be awhile before anything kinky, or romantic to happen between Tali and Alex. And I'm making the chapters longer, because I felt that the first two were short and rushed.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Somebody else used the title Into the Fire so I had to change the title. I realized that now I'm expanding the length of the chapters. It might take me longer to update new chapters now. Anyway, Alex, Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex just saved Tali'Zorah from Saren's men. She had evidence that could prove that Saren was rogue. So they all went to show Ambassador Udina.**

We walk into the ambassador's office to see the ambassador irritated. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards, and an all out assault on Chora's Den! Do you know how much...what's this? A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

"Making your day, Ambassador. She has evidence linking Saren to the geth." said Shepard.

"Maybe you should start from the beginning Miss..."

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali said to Udina.

"We don't see many quarians here. What made you leave the Flotilla?"

"I was on my Pilgrimage."

"What is that?"

"It's a rite of passage into adulthood. It proves their worthiness to provide something useful to the entire quarian race." I said.

"I didn't know you studied quarian history, Alex." Shepard said.

"What did you think I was doing down in the cargo bay besides training?" I asked.

"Anyways I found something from a geth's memory core." Tali said.

"I thought the geth's memory core blew up after they die. Some kind of failsafe mechanism." said Captain Anderson.

"This geth's memory core was still intact. Here's what I pulled from it that brought so much trouble on me." Tali said as she activated her omni-tool.

The omni-tool played an audio log "Eden Prime was a major victory. This brings us one step closer to finding the Conduit." "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

"That's Saren voice." Captain Anderson said.

"I don't recognize the other voice. The one that was mentioning Reapers."

"What are the Reapers?" Shepard asked.

"According to the geth's memory core; they were an advanced race of sentient machines that wiped out the Protheans then they vanished." Tali said.

"Sounds a little far fetched if you ask me." Udina said.

"The Council can't ignore the evidence this time." I said.

"Right. Let's set up a meeting with the Council so we can show them the evidence." Udina said.

"Agreed. Shepard meet us at the Tower when you're ready." Captain Anderson told us.

We head to the elevator again to go the Tower. We stand as we see the main pond getting smaller and smaller.

"So, Alex." Tali said.

"Yes?" I asked.

"How much do you know about quarian history?" Tali asked.

"Your people lived on Rannoch. They created the geth, and then the geth became sentient. They pushed your people off of Rannoch thus having to live on the fleet ships. Your people live in those suits, because they lived in a single cell environment which weakened their immune systems." I tell her.

"You seem to know a lot."

"Your people have always interested me like the original karate masters from Okinawa. They were people who wouldn't stand down no matter who tromped on their land."

"Were here. Let's go see the Council's reaction." Shepard said.

We go to the meeting to see that the audio clip was already being played.

"You wanted proof? Well there it is." Udina said.

"This evidence is irrefutable. We will strip Saren of his spectre status immediately. And we will make sure that a lot of effort is made to bring him in." said the turian councilor.

"I know the other voice. That's Matriarch Benezia." the asari councilor said.

"What's a Matriarch?" Shepard asked.

"Matriarchs are asari who have entered the final stage of their lives. They are powerful and revered for their wisdom. They serve as advisers and mentors to my people. Benezia is highly respected and very powerful. She has many followers and will make a formidable ally for Saren." the asari councilor told him.

Then the salarian councilor asks "I'm more interested in the Reapers. What are they?"

"According to the geth's memory core; they were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans before vanishing." Captain Anderson.

"We think the Conduit might be the key to bring them back. Saren's looking for it." I said.

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods and they believe Saren is the prophet of their return." Shepard said.

"Do we know what this Conduit is?" the salarian councilor asked.

"Saren believes it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough." Shepard stated.

"Listen to what you're saying. Saren wants to bring back a race of machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. Why haven't we found any evidence? Where did they go? If they existed, we would've found something." the turian councilor said.

"I warned you about Saren. You didn't listen. Don't make the same mistake again." Shepard said.

"Commander, this is different. We know Saren betrayed the Council and that he is using the geth to find the Conduit. We don't know why he's looking for it." the asari councilor stated.

"The Reapers are just a myth. A lie to cover up his true purpose. A legend to persuade the geth to follow him." the salarian councilor said.

"Fifty-thousand years ago, the Reapers wiped out all civilization in the galaxy! If Saren finds the Conduit it will happen again!" Shepard shouted.

"We stripped Saren of his spectre status. He's just a rogue agent on the run." said the turian councilor.

"That's not enough! Send your fleet in!" Udina yelled.

"A fleet can not track down one man." the salarian councilor stated.

"The fleet can secure the Traverse and prevent other colonies from being attacked." said the ambassador.

"It would trigger a war with the Terminus Systems! We won't get involve with a war over a few dozen human colonies!" the turian councilor.

"Send me in. I can take him down." Shepard said.

"Yeah, we can handle it. You won't have to worry about any wars sparking up." I said.

"He does have a point. It prevents hostilities with the Traverse." the asari councilor.

"No! It's too soon for the humans to join the spectres!" the turian councilor.

"It's the best way to go. Udina will have humans in the spectres and you won't have to send the fleet. So everybody gets something." I said.

The councilors look at each other deciding whether they should make us spectres or not. Soon the verdict is in.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer. Step forward." said the asari councilor.

Soon dozens of humans gather around on the balconies to see us. They look at us, hoping that we are made spectres. They hope that we make history.

Then the asari councilor says "By the decision of the Council you two are hereby granted the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individual who forged in the fire of service; those whose actions elevate them above rank and file." the salarian councilor said.

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, persistence, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will." said the asari councilor.

"Spectres bear a great burden. They are the protectors of peace in the galaxy, both our first and last line of defense. It is their duty to uphold galactic safety." said the turian councilor.

"You are the first human spectres. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species." said the asari councilor.

"We are honored, councilors." Shepard said.

"We will do everything we can to take Saren down." I said.

"You are authorized to use any means to bring Saren down." said the salarian councilor.

"Any leads on where we can find him?" Shepard asked.

"Any leads we find will be forwarded to Ambassador Udina." the turian councilor said.

"This meeting is adjourned." the asari councilor stated.

Shepard and I turn to see Udina and the Captain approaching.

"Congratulations you two." the Captain said as he shook our hands.

"We've got a lot of work to do. You're going to need a ship, a crew, and supplies." Udina said.

"You know have access to special equipment and training now. You should go down to the C-Sec Academy and talk to the Spectre requisitions officer." said the Captain.

"Anderson, come with me. I need your help to set all of this up." Udina said Captain Anderson.

Udina and the Captain walk away. Wrex was irritated with Udina.

"That bastard didn't even thank you." Wrex said.

"He's got a lot on his mind, Wrex. He's got to organize this whole thing." I said.

"And we've got more important things to worry about." Shepard said.

"We're right behind you." Tali said.

We head to the C-Sec Academy to talk to the requisitions officer.

"Hello. I... hmmmm. This is odd. I've been told to let you two have access to the spectre equipment. I heard about the two human spectres, but I didn't know it was you two." said the requisitions officer.

"I'd like to see the sniper rifles." I said.

"Sure thing. They're the best on the market." the requisitions officer stated.

I browse through the inventory to see the HMWSR Master 10. "How much for this baby?" I asked.

"That's the best sniper rifle we've got. It's going for 150,000 credits." the requisitions officer said.

"I'll take it." I said.

"How did you save up 150,000 creds on an Alliance salary?" Shepard asked.

"It wasn't easy. Plus I had to save some for my 'private reserve'." I told him.

I pay the officer and get my rifle. I admire its beauty. I loved the comfortable grip, the advanced scope, the highly solid externals, and the barrel was definitely something that was going to get the job done.

"I think you're getting a little too attached to that rifle, Alex." Shepard said.

"You're not a sniper, Shepard. You wouldn't understand the beauty of such a rifle." I said.

"We'll get our stuff while you...admire your new rifle." Shepard said.

I continued to admire my new rifle. I then see Tali purchasing a new shotgun. A shotgun. That gal knows how to wield a fucking shotgun.

"Where did a nice gal like you learn to wield a shotgun?" I asked her.

"Not what you expected, huh?" she said.

I simply said "Nope."

"My father is an experienced soldier. He taught me many things when I was a little child. He's one of the Admirals on the Admirality Board so my family has a lot of respect." she said.

Just then I began to realize something. We both had a military father except my father was killed in front of me as kid. She still has a father to go home to. My dad's probably in the afterlife, happy that I followed his footsteps.

"My dad was a veteran of the First Contact War. He taught me many things about the Alliance when I lived in a colony. He taught me things that saved my life." I said.

"He must be proud of you." she said.

I start to remember the day he, my mom, and my friends were killed. "Yeah." I said softly and I broke eyecontact.

I got up and said "I'm gonna head to the dock." I said.

As I walked away I overheard Shepard and Tali talking.

"I don't understand. Did I say something wrong?" she asked.

"He had a rough childhood." Shepard said.

"What do you mean?"

"His father, mother, and friend were killed when batarian slaver pirates attack his colony on Mindoir. He even got shot. If those marine on the SSV Einstein didn't save him, he would've bled to death."

"That's...awful."

"He was having flashbacks before we landed on Eden Prime. It's hard for him. Since the age of 13 the only person he had as a father was his grandmaster."

"I can see why he took off like that."

"Come on. We should go with him."

We arrived at the docking bay to see Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina talking.

"Commander Shepard. Since you require a ship Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is now yours." Udina said.

"She's the perfect ship for a spectre, and you know the crew." Captain Anderson said.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that." Shepard said.

"Don't worry. I think you've earned it." the Captain stated.

"Any leads, ambassador?" I asked.

"Well, the our colony on Feros has been attacked by the geth, and there have been geth sightings on Noveria."

"Good to know." I said.

"There's one more thing. Matriarch Benezia has a daughter who's an expert on the Protheans. She's somewhere in the Artemis Tau cluster." Udina told us.

"She could be useful, Shepard." I said.

"It's your choice, you two. You don't answer to us. Your spectres now." the Captain stated.

"We'll try to make things easy for you, Ambassador. I know you've got a lot work to do." I said.

"Good. If you need anything else Captain Anderson will be here." Udina said as he walked off.

"Captain, there's something we've been meaning to ask you." Shepard said to him.

"What?" the Captain asked.

"Harkin told us that you used to be a spectre." I said.

"It's true." said Captain Anderson.

"What happened on that mission that made the Council kick you out?" Shepard asked.

"Almost twenty years ago, me and Saren were sent on a mission to a manufacturing facility in the Verge to find a rogue scientist producing illegal AI technology. We track the scientist to a refinery facility protected by batarian mercenaries. The plan was simple, sneak in to the plant, capture the rogue scientist, and sneak back out. We split up to cover more ground, I was halfway there when the refinery core exploded. Officially, they ruled it as an accident, but I think Saren detonated it on purpose to draw off the guards. The refinery was in ruins, the whole place was on fire, the people inside were killed, and black chemical clouds poured into the atmosphere. There were camps nearby that housed the workers and their families. They were between the fire the chemical clouds. The final death toll was over five hundred. Mostly civilians. Saren didn't give a damn. He killed his target, and he accomplished the mission. He wrote in his report that I blew his cover, and that I was the reason it turned into a bloodbath. The Council believed that he was telling the truth, and I was kicked out of the spectres."

"That backstabbing prick." I said.

"Well, I guess we now understand why there's a lot of heat between you two." Shepard said.

"Yeah. Well you two must be going. You've got a another colony to save." the Captain said as he walked off.

We head to the decomtamination chamber on the Normandy. As we stood there, Shepard got suspicous about my private reserve.

"What is your 'private reserve', Alex?" Shepard asked with a smile on his face.

I look at him with a nervous look on my face.

"You probably thought I forgot about that didn't you?" Shepard asked.

"Fine. I stashed a bottle of spiced rum in my footlocker." I admitted.

"You're lucky that Captain Anderson is not here. He would've been mad that you're storing contraband in your footlocker." Shepard stated.

"Hey, come on! I like spiced rum once in a while, okay!" I snapped. "Besides I'm not an alcoholic. You wouldn't know it but I've been sneaking a bottle on the ship once a year for the last 3 years."

"How do you get past the Captain with that stuff?" Tali asked.

"It wasn't easy. I had play secret agent to get a bottle of rum past him without him noticing." I told her.

"What's the occass...oh." Shepard said realizing what the occassion was. He realized that in two days was the 13 year anniversary of the massacre on Mindoir.

"It's alright." I told him.

We walk into the Normandy, and Tali and Wrex. Shepard and I head to the bridge.

"I can't believe it. Captain Anderson survives a hundred battles and he gets taken down by backroom politics. Just be careful, Commander. If things go bad on this mission, you're next on the chopping block." Joker said in disbelief.

"Saren is out there somewhere. And we're going to find him." Shepard said.

"We're all behind you two. One hundred percent. Intercom's open if you want to say a few words to the crew." Joker stated.

"Everyone, this is Commander Shepard. We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you. This mission is going to be tough on all of us. Our species has stood on the sidelines for too long. Now we make our stand to prove ourselves to the other races. It's time to show the galaxy what humanity is made of. Saren knows we're coming and he's got an army of geth to back him up. But we will be ready to take them on. Humanity needs to do this. Not just for the sake of humanity, but for the sake of every other species in the galaxy. Hear me now! We will stop Saren!" Shepard said over the intercom.

"That was good." I said to Shepard.

"Let's make humanity proud, boys." Shepard said.

"I'll be down in the cargo by training. Let me know when we're at Feros." I said.

"Alright. But Alex." Shepard said.

"Yeah."

"Tali didn't mean to offend you earlier the C-Sec Academy. I told her about Mindoir."

"It's alright." I said as headed to the cargo bay.

I stretched my legs in the cargo bay and soon dropped down into a side split. I sat in my split. Just then I noticed Tali walking over to me.

"Alex I..." she paused at the sight of my flexibility. "Wow. Such flexibilty."

"I've trained for 13 years in martial arts. I took me 3 years to achieve of full split." I said while sitting in my split.

"I've come to tell that I'm sorry about what I said earlier at the Academy."

I got up from my split and said "It's alright. Shepard told me that he told you about my early life."

"Yes."

"It's not easy to talk about to anyone, but something about you makes me want to speak about it."

"Speak about what?" Garrus asked noticing the conversation between me and Tali.

"About my rough childhood." I replied.

Soon Wrex came over "I heard that Shepard said that you had a rough childhood, but I was too focused on my new shotgun to hear all of the details."

"I lived in a colony on Mindoir. My father was a mechanical engineer, and a veteran of the First Contact War. My mother was a stay at home mom. I was a happy kid with many friends. But all of that was taken away from me when batarian slaver pirates attacked my colony. My father was beaten to death trying to save my mother. The slaver violated my mother like sick animals before they shot her. Most of my friends were shot, burned, or blown up. The rest were taken aboard their ships and were tortured to death." I told them "I was then shot by slaver. I crawled away in severe pain. Then I saw the SSV Einstein. The marines got pinned down so they couldn't save everyone, and I was the only one saved from the attack." I said pointing an inch below my heart where I was shot.

"Woah." Garrus simply said with an astonished look on his face.

"That is harsh. You'd think you would be safe there, but instead it was the complete opposite." Wrex said.

"I was 13 years old, and all I wanted to do after I was shot was to crawl to somewhere quiet and die peacefully. Instead I was rescued and all I have left are the memories, and the scarring left by gunshot wound." I said.

"Shepard didn't tell me that." Tali said.

"He probably thought it would be for me to tell the more detailed story of my childhood." I told her.

"Who took care of you when you left?" Garrus asked.

"Grandmaster Ling Midori; a half Chinese and half Japanese martial artist. He taught me everything I know about martial arts. Except the arnis, that was taught to me by a friend a his from the Philippines on Earth. He treated me like a student and a second son." I said.

"Second son?" Tali asked.

"He has a son named Akio. He was my foster brother and sparring partner." I told her.

"What does he do now?" Garrus asked.

"He runs a martial arts school on the Citadel." I said.

Just then Shepard's voice spoke over the intercom "Alex, Garrus, Tali gear up. We're getting close to Feros."

We grab our gear and head to the airlock. we land at a docking port and exit the ship not knowing what we will find.


	5. Chapter 5

**The title had to be changed, because somebody else used it. Alex, Shepard, Garrus, and Tali arrive at Feros. They don't know what they will find. Alex could only hope that the colonists were okay. He didn't want them to experience what he had experienced on Mindoir. He wanted to save this colony from the geth.  
**

We exit the ship to the docks of Feros. Just then a rocket flies past our faces. We see 6 geth troopers at the other end of the dock. We immediately pull out our weapons and open fire. We kill three of the geth quickly, and then Wrex tags two more. The third one dropped, but it wasn't us who shot it. We see a young male colonist emerged from the end of the dock with an assault rifle.

"Are you here to help us?" he asks.

"Yes. We heard that you dropped out of contact when the geth arrived." I said.

"Speak to Fai Dan. He's the leader. You'll find him at the other side of Zhu's Hope." the colonist tells us.

"Alright. Lets head to the camp." Shepard said.

We head to Zhu's Hope to see a camp with metal huts. The colonists look worn down from the geth attacks. The had dirt smudged on their faces, disoriented looks, and bouts of fatigue. They should've have to go through something like this. They're fighting for their lives against a heavily armed enemy. I remember looking the same way on Torfan. I watching most of my friends get shot to pieces, and the rest of us fought for our lives against the slavers. Except I ended up having to kill men with bare hands. I hold nothing but shame for having to kill men like that. I fought those men trying to kill Tali, but I didn't kill them. I should've visited my master after Torfan. He could've gotten me through the guilt. We see Fai Dan talking to female colonist Arcelia.

"You're Commander Shepard. And you're Lieutenant Kampfer. We're glad that you came." Fai Dan said.

"Aren't you a little late?" Arcelia asked resentfully.

"Arcelia! Sorry, Commander. It's just that everybody has been on edge." Fai Dan said.

"Watch out! We've got geth in the tower!" Arcelia alerted upon seeing geth in the tower.

"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan yelled.

We ready our weapons again. And head into the tower. We killed a bunch of geth troopers before we see geth strikers climbing the walls. They dove from wall to wall while shooting at us. I pop up start to fire. One striker falls, and Garrus tags the other since he's just as good of a shot as I am. We head to the other end of the tower to see that a dropship had arrived. Geth were dropped off and they start to fire at us. We took cover, because there were two geth destroyers, a dozen geth soldiers, and a juggernaut. I take out my new sniper rifle. I pop up and shot one of the destoyers in the head. I take cover again. Then Garrus pulls out a sniper rifle of his own and tags two geth troopers before taking cover. I pop up again to kill the other destroyer. I land another head shot, but the juggernaut shot a rocket. It explodes near me. You can tell that it just wasn't my week. It felt like deja vu. Shepard runs over to me.

"Alex!." Shepard yells.

"Are you alright?" Tali asked.

"Fucking twice in one week! Dammit!" I shout in pain.

"Well just be happy that the explosion didn't scar your face this time." Shepard said.

While I was on the ground Garrus tagged three more geth. I pick myself and continue firing. Tali used carnage on the juggernaut. That was an amazing moment. Tali stands as geth rounds zip past her. This young girl launch a big round at a big geth. The juggernaut goes down. Then she kills 5 more geth before taking cover. I pop up once more and snipe the last two geth. The dropship leaves to head to some big corporate building.

"We should tell Fai Dan that the tower is clear." Garrus said.

"Right." Shepard said.

We head back to Zhu's Hope to speak with Fai Dan.

"Thanks, Commander. Without you we couldn't have secured the tower." Fai Dan said with appreciation.

"I'm just glad that the colony is safe." Shepard said.

"Same here. I know what it's like to lived in a colony." I said.

"I know I've read about you, Lieutenant Kampfer. I'm sorry about Mindoir. I know the 13 year anniversary is today." Fai Dan said.

"It's alright. What makes me happy is making sure that other colonies including yours are safe in this galaxy." I said.

Arcelia sees that I have dirt on my faces and on face.

"What happened to you?" she asks.

"Lets just say I'm not having an easy week." I told her.

"We appreciate your concern for the colony and your efforts against the geth." Fai Dan said.

"They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back." Arcelia stated

"Help me find out what the geth are after and I'll make sure that get out of here alive." Shepard said.

"We don't know why they attacked us. They made the Exogeni headquaters their base. If you want answers I would suggest looking there." Fai Dan said.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"It's at the end of the skyway." Arcelia said.

"There's obviously an army of geth blocking the way, but we have a mako that you guys can use." said Fai Dan.

"That'll come in handy." I said.

"We best be heading off." Tali said.

"Good luck out there." said Fai Dan.

"Yeah, good luck. You're gonna need it." Arcelia said.

We head to the elevator in the tower that leads to the garage.

"So who's driving?" I asked.

"I don't know how to drive a mako." Tali said.

"I think I should stay on the turret." Garrus said.

"Maybe I'll drive." I said.

"No! Not after last time." Shepard said in disagreement.

"Come on! That was seven years ago!" I said.

"Yeah! Seven years and I still don't trust you behind the wheel! You drive like a maniac!" Shepard said.

"What is this about?" Tali asked.

"Seven years ago on Elysium, Alex talked me into going for a ride in a mako for fun."

"What happened?"

"He was behind the wheel, and he takes off like it was the Daytona 500. He made donuts in the ground, he jumped a few hills, and he power slides the mako back in it original spot while going over 90 miles per hour."

"Keelah! What is wrong with you, Alex?"

"I liked watching nascar as a kid. I wanted to experience the fast driving. Oooh, I felt like a racer after that." I said with pride.

"I'm driving and that's final, Lieutenant." Shepard said.

"Fine." I simply said.

We get into the mako and sat in the back. Tali sat next to me while Garrus operated the turret. Shepard then get in the driver's seat. We could've fit one more person in the passenger seat. But we had to get moving. We start to drive across the skyway. We then encounter geth troops and a geth armature. We star dodging the blasts from the armature's cannon. Garrus shreds up the geth troopers with the turret's machine gun. Then he uses the cannon to shot at the armature. It took several hits before the armature exploded. We encountered more resistance as we got near the end of the skyway. Garrus continued to kill off geth trooper with the turret. He sent a geth destroyer flying off the skyway when he shot the cannon at it. We then hear radio chatter.

"Who's that over the radio?" Tali asked.

"They could be survivors." Garrus said.

"Lets see if there are others holding up in the Exogeni headquarters." I said.

We continue to head up the skyway and I won't lie, Shepard is horrible at driving. I wished that Shepard would injure an arm or something just so I can get behind the wheel. We then reach some sort of openning that leads to a group of survivors. We begin to approach the group. Then we reach their camp.

"That's close enough." a colonist named Ethan Jeong said.

"Relax, Joeng. They're obviously not geth." another colonist named Juliana Baynham told him.

"Get back, Juliana. Who are you? What do you want?" Jeong asked nervously.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm here to remove your geth problem." Shepard stated.

"You see, Jeong. You worry too much." Juliana said to him.

"And you trust to easily." Jeong said.

"I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I thought we were the only humans left." Juliana said.

"You're not. Zhu's Hope is still standing." I said.

"Jeong, you said that everybody at Zhu's Hope were all dead." Juliana said to him.

"I said they were probably all dead." Jeong said.

"The colonists are still holding their ground. The geth really hit them hard." Garrus stated.

"We know what that's like. Those damn synthetics are relentless." said Juliana.

"I'll do whatever I can to get rid of the geth, but I need some information first." Shepard said.

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked.

"Ignore him. The geth are housed in the Exogeni headquarters. It's further up the skyway." Juliana said.

"Those headquaters are private property. Clear out the geth and nothing more." Jeong said.

"We have no interest in your company's secrets." I said.

"One more thing. My daughter Lizbeth... she's missing." Juliana said.

"They shouldn't waste time poking around. We can do a proper casualties report once the geth are gone." Jeong said.

"That's my daughter you're talking about! She's alive! I know she is!" Juliana said.

"Where is your daughter, Juliana?" Shepard asked.

"She's still in the Exogeni headquarters. She hid there when the attacks came." Juliana said.

"Oh, yeah! There are several places she could hide. For a short time." Jeong said sarcastically.

"I'll find her and clear the geth out, but until then stay put until we say it's clear." Shepard said.

We got back in the mako and went further up the skyway. We reached the Exogeni headquarters. The entrance was too small for the mako to squeeze through, so we had to get out to enter the headquarters. We encouter geth shock troopers and strikers. We spread out and take cover. I pop out from a pillar with my assault rifle at the ready. I shoot down two strikers before moving back behind the concrete pillar. I see Garrus and Shepard pop out from their cover and kill several geth troopers. Then Shepard pops out a grenade and throws it at the remaining troopers. The blast merely destroys the right side of one of them and the other lost its flashlight head. Tali pops out from her cover and kills the last geth striker with her pistol. The amazing thing was that she hit it while it was zooming towards a wall. That was either shear luck, or she timed out that shot perfectly.

"Good shot." I said to her.

"Thanks." she said with a giggle.

I was starting to like her more and more.

"Come on. Lets move on." Shepard said.

We gave him a simple nod before following him. Then all of a sudden the exit behind us and exits across the Exogeni headquarters are blocked by a forcefield.

"What the hell?" Garrus questioned as he saw the forcefield.

"Dammit! A forcefield is blocking the exits." I said.

"It must be coming the geth ship. It's probably generating it. We've got to find a way to destroy that." Tali said.

"Normandy to shore party." Joker said over Shepard's earpiece.

"We hear you Joker." Shepard said.

"We heard about the forcefield. Want us to fire upon the geth ship?" Joker asked.

"Negative. It's too risky for the whole group. We can't risk this coming down on us. We're gonna find a way to disable the forcefield from in here." Shepard told him.

"Roger that shore party. Good luck." Joker said.

We continue to move through the building. We see an opening, but there were no stairs.

"Looks like a oneway drop, Commander." Garrus said.

We drop down to the lower level. We moved inward when someone shot at us.

"Dammit." a voice said.

We see a young women with a pistol approaching slowly. She sees that we're human and lowers the weapon.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were geth." the women.

"You need to be more careful." I said.

"Why were you here in the first place?" Shepard asked.

"I stayed behind to back up data while everybody ran when the geth attacked. I tried to get out, but that ship blocked the exits." the women said.

"We'll get you out. But first we need to know what the geth are after." Shepard said.

"I think they're after the..." she paused.

"We're here to get rid of the geth. It's important that we find out what they are after." I said.

"I think they're after the Thorian." the women said.

"What's a Thorian?" Garrus asked.

"It's an indigenous life-form that Exogeni was studying." the women said.

"Where's the Thorian now?" I asked.

"I'd show you, but not with those geth around. You've gotta shut down that field." the women said.

"We never got your name." Shepard said.

"My name is Lizbeth Baynham." she said.

"We saw your mother with a group of survivors. She's been worried sick about you." Shepard said.

"She's alive? That's great! I'll be waiting by the enterance for the field to shut down. Here's my ID card it should help get pasted locked doors. Now I'm gonna hide by the enterance." Lizbeth said as she walked off.

We move through the building. Then we come across a room of geth. We quickly took them out since we got the jump on them. We hosed them down fast. Then we noticed some large cables lead into other rooms. We then find an angry krogan trying to access the terminal.

"Stupid machine! Tell me what I want to know, or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust!" the krogan said in an irritated matter.

"If you have no further use of this terminal, please log off. There is a line forming behind you." the VI interface said.

The krogan turns to see us and whips out a big shotgun.

"Good! I need to shoot something anyway." the krogan said.

He charged us as we shot him up. He was hard to put down. We found ourselves moving backwards while shooting just to avoid getting crushed by him. After he dies, we access the terminal.

"Welcome back, Elizabeth Baynham." the VI said.

"What was the last user trying to access?" Shepard asked.

"The last user was trying to gain access to files on Species 37, the Thorian."

"What did you tell the krogan?"

"I was unable to supply the last user with any relevant data. Due to lack of proper access. And there is no new data available on Species 37."

"Where is the Thorian?"

"Species 37 is under the substructure of Zhu's Hope."

"Tell me everything about the Thorian."

"Species 37 is a simple plant life-form thats exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and inhalation of spores; it can infect and control other organisms, including humans."

"Are you saying that Exogeni knew that it's empolyees were getting infected?"

"It was deemed necessary to test the full potential of Species 37."

"We should tell Joker. Joker, come in"

"Commander, it's good to hear your voice. The colonists just went crazy. They're trying to claw their way in." Joker said in panic.

"Don't worry, Joker. It'll take them a long time to get in."

"Yeah. Well uuuhhhh, we'll just wait here for you." Joker said.

"Come on. Lets follow the cables." Shepard said.

We then find a huge room where we see the legs of the geth ship. It wasn't easy. There were geth troopers, some destroyers, a couple of juggernauts, and a few strikers. We spread out again. I take out two geth troopers before taking behind a wall. A rocket then explodes near me again. I was lucky that time. I just got a scar on my right cheek. Three times the chram they say.

"I'm gonna fucking kill those juggernauts." I said to myself.

Three times this happens to me. Three! I began to wonder everbody else got off lucky. Well almost everybody. Shepard got wounded in his left arm as we pushed towards the other side of the room. He began using his pistol instead. I kill the two juggernauts like I said I would. We push on through the intense enemy fire. We made it to the other side killing three geth strikers, a destroyer, and the last two geth troopers. We see a set off controls.

"Hey. Those doors are really strong. I bet I can get them to cut the legs of that ship." I said.

"Well, get to work." Shepard grunted in pain.

I managed to equalize the pressure of the door to get it to shut. It cuts one of the legs off the ship. The ship begins to fall. I falls over a thousand feet, I'm pretty sure that will destroy it.

"Good work." Tali said.

"Thanks. Now lets find Elizabeth. she knew more than she let on." I said.  
We head to the entrance to find Elizabeth.

"Come on. Lets go." Elizabeth said.

"Hold on. You knew more about the Thorian than you let on." I said.

"I'm sorry. I tried to stop them, bu they threatened me. I couldn't do a thing." Elizabeth said.

"It's okay. Lets find the Thorian and kill it." I said.

"Right."

"My arm still hurts like hell. I don't think I can drive the mako."

"I can't drive that thing." Elizabeth said.

"Me neither." Tali said.

"It's probably better if I stay on the turret." Garrus said.

"Then who's going to drive?" Shepard asked.

Then Shepard, Garrus, and Tali slowly look over at me.

"No." they all said.

Next we know I was behind the wheel driving like a maniac. I zoomed back across the sky way. Everybody had scared looks on their faces.

Tali then yells "Shepard, you're right. He does drive like a maniac!"

"Slow down!" Shepard yells.

But I don't care. I just keep driving. Then we hear radio chatter.

"Hello? This is Juliana Bayham of the Feros colony. Can anyone read me?" "Get away from that radio!" "You bastard! You won't get away with this." we hear over the radio.

"That's my mother! Stop the rover!" Elizabeth yelled. I power slide near the entrance where her mother was.

We sneak near the group to find out what's going on.

"You can't do this, Jeong!" Juliana yelled.

"Everyone shut up! I need to think!" Jeong shouted.

"You won't get away with this." Juliana said.

"Get her out of here!" Jeong told a guard.

"That's my mom, you bastard!" Elizabeth yelled as she run towards her mother.

"Lizabeth!" Juliana said before she embraced her daughter.

"Dammit. Come out so I can see you! All of you!" Jeong shouted at us.

We come out. We walked as if we weren't intimidated at all.

"Shepard? Dammit! I knew it was too much to hope that the geth would kill you. I read some interesting facts about you and Kampfer in the databases. I know about both of your actions during the Skyllian Blitz, and Kampfer's actions on Torfan. This doesn't have to turn into a blitz and I certainly don't won't this to turn into a bloodbath like Torfan." Jeong said in disbelief.

"What do you think you are doing, Jeong?" Shepard asked.

"Exogeni wants this place purged." Jeong said.

"This is a human colony. You can't just re-purpose us." Elizabeth said.

"It's not just you. There's something here that's more valuable than a few colonists." Jeong said.

"The Thorian." I simply said.

"The what?" Juliana asked.

"It's a telepathic life-form living under Zhu's Hope. It's taking control of the colonists. Exogeni knew all along." Elizabeth told her mother.

"You won't ge away with this, Jeong." Juliana said.

"Says you. But no one is going to miss a few colonists." Jeong said.

"Too far, Jeong. Drop the weapon or prepare yourself to use it." I said to him in anger.

"If that's the way it's got to be. Then come on! Come on!" Jeong yelled.

I whip out my pistol and punch a shot through his skull. Tali pulls out her shotgun, and Garrus pulls out his assault rifle when they see some guards approaching us. They backed off at the sight of our weapons.

"As if we didn't have enough problems. Now were shooting each other in the face." Juliana said.

"It's my fault. I didn't do anything to stop this." Elizabeth said.

"Don't say that. You do good work and you know it." Juliana said.

"We have to stop the Thorian from enslaving more minds." I said.

"It's not going to be easy. Those colonist won't let up. They're under the Thorian's control. You could use a nerve agent to knock them out." Juliana said.

"We'll take them. I don't want to shoot innocent colonists." I said.

We then head back to the mako and I start to drive fast again. I then see that the garage door at Zhu's Hope is locked so I slam the brake pad. I then turn to see that my right arm was over Tali's breasts. It took me a moment to notice. I look at her and she looks at me. There was something in those eyes of hers that was trying to tell me something. I put my arm back on the wheel and said "Sorry."

She probably thinks I intentionally stopped short to get a feel if you know what I mean.

"Lets go."Shepard said.

'Is the your left arm gonna be good for this?" I ask Shepard.

"Yeah, I just used some medi-gel. That should hold the pain back for a bit." Shepard replied.

We get out to see a creeper standing near the door. It charges at us and I immediately shoot it.

"When we go in there, watch your fire around the colonists. That's what the nerve gas grenades are for." Shepard said before unlocking the garage door.

We rush in to see a lot of creepers in the garage. We start shooting them up and they kept were spewing chemicals everywhere when some of them got close. Luckily none of us got covered with the chemicals. I start rifle butt them. I then shoot them when they're on the ground. We see several colonists and they start to shoot at us. Garrus tosses a gas grenade at them. The get knocked out by the blast. We continue to move in. When we reach the main sttlement there were colonist and creepers.

"Garrus, Tali. Focus on the creepers! Shepard and I will knock out the colonists!" I yell to them.

I start to move up towards the colonists. I was tossing gas grenade after gas grenade to knock them out. By the end of it all there were creepers and unconscious colonists every where. I then see a computer to the crane online. I activate the crane and it lifts a gaint metal crate. We then see a large opening leading to where the Thorian was. We then see Fai Dan struggling to fight off the mind control of the Thorian.

"I tried to fight it, but it just gets stuck in your head." Fai Dan said.

He then pulls out his pistol.

"It wants me to stop, but I won't. I won't!" Fai Dan said as he forced the pistol on himself. He then shoots himself in the head.

We take a moment to look at Fai Dan. He shot himself so he wouldn't be forced to stop us. We then head down the stairs of the opening.

"Okay so we must first find this Thorian. And then determine what it...Keelah, what is that?" Tali said as we stumbled upon a gaint, slimy plant creature.

"That does not look like any plant I've ever seen. This may be...problematic." Shepard said while observing the plant creature.

Then the Thorian spits out a green asari.

"I speak for the old growth. Be gone outsiders, your every step is a transgression." the green asari said.

"You gave something to Saren. Something we need." Shepard said.

"The old growth gave Saren the Cipher, but that connection has grown cold. The old growth will listen no longer. Prepare to fight." the green asari said before pulling out a shotgun. We dodged the shots and soon we encountered more Thorian creepers. We shoot them up, but then the asari tosses huge rocks at us with her biotics. I then use overkill to burst through her shields and killing her. She goes down. We go up a flight of stairs i the underground structure to find a node attached to the wall. It had a vein that went to the Thorian so we shoot it. The Thorian lets out a groan in pain.

"Come on. Lets find another." I said.

Then the Thorian spits out another green asari and then more creepers showed up. We continuously fight through them to find another node. The creepers kept charging and the green asari kept firing at us. I land a headshot, killing the asari. We find another node after killing dozens of creepers. Tali uses carnage to destroy the node. Then the Thorian lets out another painful groan and releases another green asari. They just keep coming and coming. I didn't when the Thorian would die. We fought through more creepers before one if them knocked Tali out cold. I run to aid her. I stick by her side making sure was alright.

"Come on, Tali! Get up!" I shout at her unconcious body.

I shake her and shouted more.

"Come on! We gotta kill this thing!" I shouted.

I kept firing at the oncoming creepers to protect her. She soon woke up to see me shooting creepers by her side. Soon there were no more creepers. at least until we shoot the next node.

"Alex." she said as she was waking up.

"Tali! Good you're up." I said.

I pull her to her feet.

"You gonna be okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

We then regroup with Garrus and Shepard at the last node. We all shoot it and the Thorian lets out one final grown before falliong into the deep abyss of the underground structure. We were relieved. We finally killed the abomination. We then find a sack with a blue asari that looks like the green asari.

"Who are you?" she said still trying to comprehend everything after getting out of that sack.

"I'm Commander Shepard. Are you alright?"

"I think so or I will be in due time."

"Who are you? Why were you in that sack?"

"My name is Shiala and I was a student of Matriarch Benezia. When Saren come here with Matriarch Benezia to obtain the Cipher. After he got the Cipher he betrayed me and handed me over to the Thorian."

"Saren is pretty quick to betray his own allies."

"Yes. He is indeed."

"I'm trying to track him down. Can you help me?"

"Yes. Since you and the other human touched the beacon on Eden Prime, I can give you the Cipher."

"How did you know that we touched the beacon."

"I can sense it. Now come you two."

"Alright." I said approaching her.

We 'couple' our minds to add more of the pieces of the vision. But it still wasn't clear enough to under stand.

"You two have been given a great gift. Now I think I should help the colony rebuild itself."

"I think that's a wonderful idea. Help the colonists. They've been through a lot." I said.

We then head up to see that the colonists were fine. We were greeted by the colonists.

I turned to Shiala and asked "Do you think you can handle it from here?"

"Yes. I will have full dedication to rebuilding this colony."

"Good." I said.

"Well, lets head back to the Normandy. Goodbye, Shiala. And good luck." Shepard said.

"Same to you, Shepard."

We walk back to the ship tired from the battle.

"Alex." Tali said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I never thanked you for saving me from those creepers. Thanks."

"When I see get knocked out, I immediately rushed over. I couldn't just leave you there."

We go through the decontamination chamber. Then it was business as usual. Shepard went to Doctor Chakwas to have his arm checked. I didn't go even though I was hit by two rockets that day. I went down to engineering to see that Garrus was telling Kaiden, Ashley, and Wrex about the mission.

"Shepard gets wounded in the arm during the battle in the Exogeni so Alex drives the mako. And he drives like a maniac just like Shepard said."

"Come on. You have to admit that it was thrilling." I said.

"Yeah, you drove over a 100 mph. I'm still recovering from that joyride of yours."

"I certainly had a lot a fun."

"Then at the end of the skyway when we were returning to Zhu's Hope, Alex stopped short on Tali."

The others looked at me with smiles of humor.

"Shut up! What was I susposed to do? Drive the mako into the 100 foot, steel door and fail the mission?"

"You stopped short on her?" Kaiden said with a laugh.

"I had to stop. And I didn't mean for that to happen." I told him.

"Yeah, sure." Wrex said sarcastically.

"Fine. I'm gonna get my spiced rum." I said as I walked away.

I went to my footlocker to get my spiced rum. I take the bottle out and head back down to the cargo deck. Next thing I knew, I was sitting on a supply crate doing a shot of rum for my parents, and my friends. I was drunk within an hour. I was laying on the floor. Soon Tali and Shepard came by to drag my drunken self to my sleeping pod. They put me in and close the lid. They started to talk. They thought that I was out cold, but I could hear what they were saying.

"I hope he's good for tomorrow." Shepard said.

"Is this the first time he's gotten drunk on the ship?" Tali asked.

"Yeah. If he had gotten drunk when Captain Anderson was in charge, he would've been court martialed."

"Is he always this reckless?"

"What do you mean?

"Alex throws himself into danger a lot. He saved me twice now."

"Ever since Mindoir, the Blitz, and Torfan he has always been reckless in some ways."

"I wanted to tell you something, only because I trust you and Alex is asleep."

"What is it, Tali?"

"I think I have feelings for him."

"What?"

"Ever since he saved me from Saren's men and learning about his harsh past, I've been attracted to him."

"He'll be shocked if he hears that. He's never had someone to love. Maybe you can help him find true happiness."

"I'm not sure what he will think so for now just keep it a secret between you and me."

"Tali, my lips are sealed. Now get some rest, we've got another day tomorrow."

"Alright."

They walk off to get some sleep. I was shocked alright. She's attracted to me. Me! A tough, selfless, and scarred marine who's never found true happiness in life. I don't know why she didn't tell me. I had the feelings towards her. For now I'll wait before I make a move. I then fall into a deep sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

** I had to change the title to keep my story on here since another author used chapters are really gonna be long now. I'm trying to squeeze one mission into a single chapter. So there might be one chapter with the Virmire mission, or another with the Noveria mission. So it will take me longer to put out new chapter. And I apologize for it. Alex overheard Tali saying that she is attracted to him. This surprises him, because he has the same feelings towards her. For now he's going to wait before he tells her. Or maybe she'll tell him. We don't know. Right now Alex is sleeping in the sleeping pod.**

_I walk in a grassy field to see a colony of people. I was playing football with my friends on the plateau. We run and toss the football around. We then observe the sunrise. It was a beautiful sight. The bright yellowish color shines over the horizon. We then continued our game of football. When then hear the sounds of ships coming. We thought they were ships delivering supplies. My friends run to see what was going on. I stayed in the field on the plateau. 5 minutes later I hear screaming and shooting. I run to see what was going on. I see batarians shooting and kidnapping people. Most of my friends were dead already. They were either shot, blown up, or burned up. The other had device implanted into heads while they were screaming in pain including my best friend. The slaver then tied them like hogs and toss them into cages. I hear the screams of my mom. I run back to my hut. I was thirty feet away from my hut when I saw a horrifying sight. My mom was being violated by those batarian bastards. I froze at the sight. I hear my mother scream, and then I look to see where my dad was. I then see the slavers beating my dad to death. I hear him screaming in pain. I run to stop it. A batarian slaver sees me and then he shots me below the heart. I fall to the ground in pain. I realized that this was the first time I've been shot. I look up to the my father dead and my mother being shot. I couldn't believe it, they raped her and then they shot her with no remorse. I then see my best friend, who is also named Alex, being dragged aboard a slaver ship. I wanted to help, but I couldn't. I begin to think that I was going to die. I wanted to crawl to somewhere quiet so that I can in peace. I start crawling. The pain from the gunshot wound got worse as I crawled. I then see something I wasn't expecting to see. The SSV Einstein. The marines off load and begin to shoot the slavers as they were leaving. I then faint to the sight of the ships leaving with my best friend._

I then wake up from the nightmare and accidently slam my head into the glass lid of the sleeping pod. I take a moment to regain my senses. I then fall out of my sleeping to see that Tali, Shepard, Ashley, Kaiden, Garrus, and Wrex.

"Woah! Take it easy." Kaiden said.

"You had us scared, Alex. We saw shaking around in your pod." Shepard said.

"Are you alright?" Ashley asked.

"Wait. I was shaking around in there?" I asked.

"Yeah. You looked like you were having a nightmare." Tali said.

"I was dreaming about Mindoir again." I told them. "God! My head is killing me."

"It's from your drunkeness from yesterday plus you bashed your head into the lid of your sleeping pod." Garrus said.

"Yeah, me and Shepard dragged you back to your pod yesterday, because you were too drunk to walk." Tali said.

"Well spiced rum will do that to you. Thanks. I just can't get the memories out of my head." I said.

"Will you be alright for today? We're going to the Citadel to get some supplies." Shepard said.

"I'll be good." I said.

Then Tali extends a hand to help me up. I grab her hand and she pulls me up.

"I'll be good for today." I said.

We arrive at the Citadel. When we exit the elevator we saw a news reporter standing there.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer. Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani, Westerlund News. Do you have a minute for an interview?"

"Sure. But you must understand that we cannot answer every question." Shepard said.

Khalisah turned on her camera to start the interview.

"People are saying that you two are the first human spectres. How does is it feel to you?"

"We feel honored that we have been given such a position. But we must realize that just because we're spectres, it doesn't mean that we're instantly gonna get a spot on the Council."

"You've been given a an amazing ship. Do you think it was right to hand over the Alliance's most powerful warship to the Council?"

"The Normandy was actually co-designed by human and turian engineers. So it's not like we're officially losing it."

"One more thing. Rumors are swirling around that you are chasing a rogue spectre. Any comments on that?"

"I'm afraid we're not allowed to comment on spectre activities."

"Commander Shepard." a voice speaks over Shepard's ear piece.

"Yes? Who is this?" Shepard asked.

'This is Lieutenant Girard from Citadel Security. There's girl that we picked up from a batarian ship. She's from Mindoir."

Shepard looks over at me and then asks the C-Sec officer "What's the situation?"

"She grabbed a gun from one of my men and is threatening to kill herself."

"What do you need me to do?" Shepard asked.

"Bring Lieutenant Kampfer to the docks. I figured since he's a survivor of Mindoir, he could talk to her."

"Were heading your way know." Shepard said.

"I'm sorry, Ms. al-Jilani. I must go. I have to confront some inner demons." I said as I walked to the elevator.

We go to the docks to meet with Lieutenant Girard.

"There you are." the Lieutenant said.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"She's behind those crates. I didn't want to provoke her. I have snipers in position, but I don't think we'll need them. Here take this sedative. See if you can get her to take it." Lieutenant Girard said.

"Alright. Everybody stay back. I'm leaving my weapons here. I don't want her to freak out." I told them.

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked.

"I'm sure." I said as I walked towards the crate. I reach the crate to see a 19 year old girl with a shaved head, and a pistol.

"Get back! Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Lieutenant Alex Kampfer. I was sent over to talk to you. What's your name?" I asked her.

"Animals don't get names. The master put the symbols on her. Hot metal on her back. She screams when they do it."

"Think back. What did your parents call you?"

"They called her...Talitha. She doesn't remember the rest. Leave her alone."

"What happened to your parents?"

"She hears them scream. Run. Hide. They hit the masters. But the masters have lights and hoses. Daddy...he's melting! She doesn't want to see that! Don't make her look! Stupid, stupid!"

"I lived on Mindoir, Talitha. I lost my parents too. My mother was raped then shot to death while my father was beaten to death. I know it's hard, but try to remember."

"When water comes out of her eyes, she wastes water. The masters hate it when she wastes water. So she doesn't think anymore. She sees them. Mommy and daddy in the light. Melting away. Falling to pieces and they can't say anything to her. They dead, Alex. Dead like your parents."

"I'm going to take a step towards you know."

I take a single step.

"No! Don't touch her! She doesn't want to be handled again!"

"Calm down, Talitha. Nobody's here to handle you. I'm just here to talk. How did you get here? Did you escape?"

"She can't escape. They have chains. Wires. Needles. They take your brains away if you go too far. Animals like her come. Animals with guns. They kill the masters. She tries to fix the masters. Putting in the purples and reds so they won't be mad at her. The other animals take her."

"You were afraid. For thirteen years you've only known about the master's abuse. So you tried to heal them."

"She doesn't want to see other animals. They're not real. They can't be real. They can't see her. If they see her, then they are real. But it can't be. The wires. The chains. The needles. The burning. The hitting. This doesn't happen to her. It's another girl. A dirty girl! A stupid girl! She deserves it! It happens to her. She's the one who suffers. They see her, then it's real. She doesn't want it to be real."

"I'm gonna take another step towards you now."

"Don't touch her! She doesn't want that!"

"Woah, stay calm. You're doing good, Talitha. We're both colonists from Mindoir that witnessed horrible things."

"Why are you not like her. Broken. Only fit to dig and carry."

"I was broken for awhile. I was torn up about my family, and my friends. I couldn't just stop, Talitha. I was shot by a slaver, but I kept going. I couldn't just sit there and bleed out. I had to keep going. My whole childhood was destroyed that day and I'll tell you now that I haven't had an life since. I'm messed up too. Every night I still dream about that day. I still think about the raid every day of my life."

"You lose your mommy and daddy. But you don't dig and carry like she does. You stand up. She wishes she could stand up."

"You can, Talitha. You can still stand up like I did. You don't have to give in. You can still fight it. You don't have to let your past with the masters control you."

"She really wants to. She..." she then breaks down and cries. I walk over to her and hug her.

"It's alright, Talitha. We both lost something from that day on Mindoir. Our childhood. But it doesn't mean that our lives are over."

"It...doesn't?"

"No. We can start a new life."

"Okay."

Then we walk to the Lieutenant, who had called a medical team to take her away.

"Here take this. It will make you go to sleep and you will wake up in a warm, and cozy place."

"Okay. Thanks, Alex."

Talitha takes the sedative and falls asleep. The medical team puts her on a stretcher and take her to the hospital.

"I'm proud of you, Alex." Shepard said.

"Yeah. I can't believe you calmed her down." Tali said.

"I've had nightmares for years about the raid. I'm glad that I finally found someone who shares the same pain that I have." I said.

"Thanks, Lieutenant Kampfer. I didn't want her to hurt herself. Thank you." said Lieutenant Girard.

"I'm happy that I helped." I said.

"Now lets get our supplies for the mission." Shepard said.

"Right." I said.

We then get our supplies and then come across a fan.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer. I'm a huge fan of both of you. Could I get an autograph?" the fan.

"Anything for a fan. Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"My name is Conrad. Conrad Verner. It's an honor to meet you two." Conrad said.

"The pleasure is ours." I said.

"They say that you killed over a hundred geth on Eden Prime." said Conrad.

"We spent most of time trying to save the colonists." I said.

"It's been an honor to talk to you guys. But next time you're on Earth, I'd love to buy you a drink. Thanks again." Conrad said as he walks away.

"He seemed harmless." Shepard said.

"It's a good thing he's not one of those stalker fans." I said.

We go to the C-Sec Academy to buy more weapons. Me, Garrus, Tali, and Shepard encounter a poor man begging for money.

"Could you spare some money for an old veteran. Wait. John is that you?" the veteran asked.

"Do I know you?" Shepard asked.

"I forgot that you were just a kid then. I'm Lieutenant Zabaleta, I was on the SSV Einstein with your mother when you were in high school." he said.

"My mother told me about you. What are you doing here?" Shepard asked.

"I'm just down on my luck that's all." Zabaleta said.

"Here's some credits. I hope things turn up for you." Shepard said.

We head back to the Normandy. Shepard wanted to call his mother about Zabaleta.

"Joker set me up a comm link to the SSV Kilimanjaro. I want to speak with my mother." Shepard said.

"Hello, I...Oh, hi John. I'm sorry, but I can't take personal calls right now I'm on duty."

"I know what that's like. Do you remember a Lieutenant Zabaleta?"

"Ernesto? Have you heard from him."

"We found him in the lower levels of the Citadel wards begging for money for booze."

"Oh, Ernesto. He's been like this since Mindoir. He was on the Einstein when they went to Mindoir. He was one of the first down. He saw every kind of atrocity committed. To slaver a person is another animal. Alex would obviously know. Ernesto was a different man after that. He showed up drunk on duty several times so they discharged him. If you see him again, tell him to get help from the Veteran Affairs office."

"Alright. I'll talk to you another time, mom. Normandy out."

"Talk to you later. Kilimanjaro out."

"Jesus, we got to help him. He's throwing his life away, Shepard.' I said.

"I know lets go find him." Shepard said.

We leave the Normandy to go find Zabaleta.

"Hey, kid." Zabaleta said.

"I spoke with my mother. I know what you saw on Mindoir." Shepard said.

"Did she now? I can still hear the screams of the people being tied like hogs, and thrown into cages. They put wiring and brain control devices into the colonists with no anesthetic." Zabaleta said beginning to shed a tear.

"I understand your pain. They did that to my best friend before they dragged him on to their ship." I said.

"How would you know?" Zabaleta said as he holding back from crying.

"Because I was there." I said pointing below my heart.

"Wait. You're that boy we saved. I remember you. You were shot, and you were bleeding out." Zabaleta said.

"Yes. I wanted to die right then and there, but when I saw your ship I wanted nothing more then to be saved. You and your men gave me hope. That's why I joined the Alliance. To stop things like that from happening." I said.

"I've been spending 13 years looking for something to make those horrible sights go away. What have you got, Shepard? What have you got?" Zabaleta said.

"I'm not giving you money just so you can go drink yourself to death. You need help." Shepard said.

"What will stop the nightmares? If you don't know, then just give me twenty credits for a bottle of whiskey." Zabaleta said.

"The Veteran's Affairs office can help you. You're not the only marine who's seen that kind of hell." Shepard said.

"The VAO? Fine. I'll do it. Your mother always stuck up for me. I'm going now. Thanks, John. And thank you, Alex for making me feel a little better about myself. I'm just glad that we saved you from that hell." Zabaleta said.

Then Zabaleta goes to the Veteran's Affair office. We felt happy that we helped an old veteran get back on his feet. I'm glad that Mindoir didn't force me into drinking. We head back to the Normandy to plan our next mission.

"Alright, Joker. Set course for Therum. We're gonna find Dr. T'Soni." Shepard said.

"Aye Aye, Commander." Joker said.

"Alex, get Ashley and Wrex geared up. And we're taking the mako, but you're not driving." Shepard said.

We got our gear and got in the mako. Joker dropped us off and away we go. I was manning the turret for this mission. After 10 minutes of driving we encounter geth. There were two armatures, and three rocket troopers. I thought to myself, _If we come across these things more than once, then this is going to be a rough day._ I mow down the rocket troopers before they even fire a single rocket. Then Shepard hits the thrusters to dodge the plasma cannons of the armatures. I fire the machinegun on the turret to drop their shields and then I fire a rocket at one of them. It blows up sending pieces flying. Then I focus on the next one doing the same thing. Pieces fly while we still stand. We head up the trail to encounter more armatures and rocket troopers. I wasted no time blasting them. The adrenaline was flowing through my body as I mow down the troopers and blow up the armatures. I see dropships dropping off more which keeps the adrenaline flowing. I take them down quickly like they were nothing. We then drive into a tunnel and at the other end...more rocket troopers, but no armatures. I kill them in seconds. We continue on to see gate guarded by four rocket turrets and lots of geth.

"Only a fool punches a nathak in the mouth, we should sneak around and pull its tail." Wrex said.

"Point taken!" I yell as rockets fly past us.

We find a path that flanks the turrets and gets us behind the gate. We encounter lots of geth. There were troopers, destoyers, and juggernauts. Fucking juggernauts. Flashback of juggernaut rocket wounding me pop into my mind. I thought about sweet revenge.

"Oh look. Some juggernauts. Lets see how those fuckers like these apples." I said with a devious smile on my face.

I start firing the machinegun at the troopers and fire rockets at the juggernauts. It felt good that this time they were being hit with the rockets and not me. In several minute they're all dead. We approach another gate, but we had to get out to open it manually. We keep moving, but then we came a rocky opening too small for the mako. It felt like Feros again with us having to abandon our vehicle because it would fit through a space. We get out and continue on foot. We head into a rocky pit to find ourselves surrounded by geth. I take cover behind a boulder with Wrex. Ashley takes cover behind a pile of rocks. Shepard hides behind a boulder thirty feet from where I am. I take out my sniper rifle and pick my targets. I take out a sniper in a tower at the other end of the pit. I then kill two more snipers before they get a chance to shoot. Wrex takes out an assault rifle and starts to shoot down a bunch of geth. Shepard pops out from his cover and starts to shot. Ashley then pops up and chucks a frag grenade at a couple geth. After fifteen minutes the geth in the area were dead. We move on. We find the entrance to the dig site, but we're blocked by two geth strikers, three geth troopers, a geth sniper, and to make things worse a geth armature. We all take cover behind a huge steel crate. Ashley pops out and shoot the two stirkers.

"Shepard!" I yell.

"Yeah!"

"I got an idea! You and I will use overkill to bring the armature's shields down, then Wrex will hit it with a carnage!"

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Lets do it on three! One! Two! Three!"

Shepard and I pop out and use overkill. We kill the other geth troopers and then focus on the armature. Ashley kills the geth sniper that zeroing in on me. Then the shields on the armature drop.

"Wrex! Hit it now!" I yell.

Wrex fires and the armature goes down. We then head into the digsite. There was a long tunnel that run sixty feet. We come out the other end and move through the digsite. We find an elevator and go down a floor. We then see an opening covered by a forcefield with Dr. T'Soni in a biotic bubble of some sort.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Liara asks.

"We hear you. How did you get stuck there?" Shepard asked.

"It's my fault. When the geth came, I put up this field to keep them from getting in. I guess I touched something I wasn't supposed to and now I'm stuck in this biotic sphere." Liara said.

"Alright. Stay calm. We'll get you out of there." Shepard said.

We then jumped down a floor since there rubble blocking the path of the elevator. We encounter some geth recon drones, some troopers, and a destroyer. Ashley and Shepard shoot down the drones while Wrex and I take care of the troopers. I tag two troopers before turning my attention to the destroyer. I use overkill to take that thing down. Then I target the remaining geth.

"Hey, Alex. Save some for me." Wrex said after seeing me kill most of the geth in the area.

"Sorry." I said.

We then see a mining laser pointed towards the floor below Liara.

"Shepard, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I said eyeballing the laser.

We turn it on and activate it. It blows a hole through the rock. We go through the hole and find a lift. We take the lift up to where Liara is.

"Oh, there you are. I didn't think there was a way past that field." Liara said.

"We just used the mining laser to make an enterance on the floor below." I said.

"Well that makes sense. Can you please get me out of here?" Liara asked.

"Wait, Shepard. Her mother is working for Saren. I'm not sure if we can trust her." Wrex said.

"I don't know why my mother works for Saren. I don't want anything to do with that turian bastard." Liara said.

"If she were a threat, the geth wouldn't be after her." Shepard said.

"I'm turning off the biotic sphere." I said.

The sphere turns off and she falls to the ground.

"Come on. We need to get out of here. There should be an elevator over there or at least I think it's an elevator." Liara said.

We reach the lift. Liara begins to wonder why the geth are after her.

"I still can't believe all of this. Why would the geth come after me? Do you think my mother is involved?" Liara said.

"Saren is searching for the Conduit. Think fast, Miss Prothean expert." Ashley said.

"The Conduit, but I..." Liara's sentence is cut off by a rumble.

"What the hell was that?" Ashley asked.

"That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event." Liara said.

Shepard then speaks to over the radio "Joker, get the Normandy and pick us up at the digsite! On the double mister!"

"Roger that, Commander. ETA 5 minutes." Joker said.

"If I die in here I'll kill him." Wrex said.

We reach the top only to be stopped by a krogan warlord and his squad of geth.

"Surrender or don't, that would be more fun." the krogan warlord said.

"We don't have time to deal with this idiot! Charge!" Shepard shouted.

"Heh. I like your additude." the krogan said.

Liara creates a biotic shield to protect herself. The rest of us split up. I take down two geth troopers while Shepard takes down the geth sniper. Wrex kills two other geth. Before I knew the krogan warlord was coming at me. I deliver a jumping side kick to his face. He gets up and I start to punch him in the face multiple times. The others looked at me like I was fucking except Shepard. Shepard knows that I did MMA whenever I was on leave. In these MMA fights I was pitted against people from various races including krogan. I'm the only human MMA fighter to beat two krogan. So fighting this warlord made me feel like I was back in the octagon. The krogan gets me in a bear hug. I hit the sides of his head with two palm strikes causing a headache. The krogan regains himself before charging at me. I do a jump spinning back kick to his face, knocking him out.

"Come on! We got to go!" Shepard yelled.

We all rush to the Normandy, escaping the digsite before caving in and sparking a volcanic explosion. We were relieved.

**I think I will start having Kampfer open up to Tali in the next chapter. I will try to get these chapters done fast, but I can't guarantee it. I hope you have enjoyed the story so far.**


	7. Chapter 7

**The title had to be changed, because somebody used it before I did. Alex, Shepard, Ashley, and Wrex just rescued Liara T'Soni from geth troopers trying to kill her. They then plan their mission to Noveria to apprehend Matriarch Benezia. In the meantime Alex finally opens up to Tali about his feelings towards her. Hope you enjoy.**

We sit in the comm room on the Normandy. Me, Ashley, Wrex, Shepard, and Liara are relieved that we got out of the digsite before the volcanic explosion.

"That was too close, Commander. Another ten seconds we would've been swimming in molten sulfur. The Normandy was not designed to land in exploding volcanoes. They seem to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for future reference." Joker said.

"We almost died down there. Why is your pilot making jokes?" Liara said.

"He saved our lives. I think he's entitled to some jokes." Shepard said.

"And eases tension around here." I said.

"You certainly needed tension eased. You fought a korgan warlord in hand to hand combat." Ashley said.

"Hey, I fought krogan in MMA octagons. In fact I'm the only human MMA fighter that beat two krogan in the octagon. Both fights were I won by knockout." I said.

"Jeez, and I thought you were tough before." Garrus said.

"Shepard would know. He would always watch my fights." I said. I turn to Shepard "I don't know why you were awestruck when I fought Saren's men with my martial arts."

"It was the first time I saw you fight multiple targets. And you beat three men in a minute." Shepard said. "Anyways. Liara do you know something about the Conduit?"

"All that I know about it is that it was somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. I spent the last fifty years trying to figure out what happened to then."  
Liara said.

"How old are you exactly?" Shepard asked.

"I hate to admit it, but I'm only a hundred and six years old." Liara said.

"Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm you age." Ashley said.

"A century may seem like a long time to short-lived species like yours, but among the asari I'm considered barely more than a child. That's why my work has not gotten the credit it deserves." Liara said.

"So older asari scholars dismiss your theories due to your young age?" I asked.

"Yes." Liara replied.

"I have a theory." Shepard said.

"I'm pretty sure I've heard every theory out there." Liara said.

"The Protheans were wiped out by a race of machines. The Reapers." Shepard said.

"How do you know this?" Liara said.

"Me and Alex found a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a vision into our brains. We still don't know what it means." Shepard said.

" A beacon? Yes, that makes sense. But Prothean technology were not to interact with human minds. I surprised that you saw the vision." Liara said.

"We don't understand it completely. Even after getting the Cipher, we still don't know what it means." I said.

"The Cipher?" Liara said.

"Some asari mumbo." Ashley said.

"I read that it's supposed to make people think like Protheans." Kaiden said.

"It takes time for something like that to settle in your mind." I said.

"And this was something another asari gave you. Commander. Lieutenant. With your permission I'd like to try something. I would like to couple my mind with yours." Liara said.

"Anything that'll help." I said.

"Relax you two. Embrace eternity." Liara said.

Shepard and I couple our minds with Liara's. We then see a more descriptive images of the vision.

"Wow. In all of my years of research, I never thought...Oooohhh." Liara said as she was getting light-headed.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Doctor Chakwas should take a look at you." Kaiden said.

"It's probably from the coupling, but it can't hurt to get checked out by a medical professional." Liara said.

"Wait. So what's the story behind the vision?" I asked.

"The beacon on Eden Prime must have been badly damaged. There are large portions missing from the vision. I bet Saren wanted me gone, because he knew that I could help you two understand it." Liara said.

"Alright. We're done here." Shepard said.

"You report was filed through, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?" Joker asked.

"Patch them through, Joker." Shepard said.

The three councilors pop up on our comm link.

"Commander. Lieutenant. I understand that Dr. T'Soni is on the Normandy." the asari councilor said.

"I hope that you're taking the necessary security precautions." the turian councilor said.

"She wants to help. The geth were trying to kill her on Therum." Shepard said.

"Impossible. Benezia would never allow Saren to kill her daughter." the asari councilor said.

"Maybe she doesn't know." the salarian councilor said.

"Or maybe we don't know her. We never expected betrayal from her." the turian councilor said.

"Well at least the mission was a success." the salarian councilor said.

"Oh yes. Along with the destruction of a major Prothean ruin. Was that really necessary, Commander?" the turian councilor asked.

"The geth were crawling all over that dig site. We were lucky that we made it out alive." Shepard said.

"Of course, Commander. The mission is always top priority." the salarian councilor said.

"Good luck, Commander." the asari councilor said before the comm ended.

"I'm gonna be down in engineering." I said.

"Alright." Shepard said.

I head to engineering arguing with myself on whether I should tell Tali about my love for her or not. My mind is going into two different directions at once. By the time I get down to the cargo area I figured that its best if I come clean. I head into engineering to see Tali on the left side of the room watching something. I walk closer to see that Tali was watching footage of me in my MMA fights. She failed to notice me and said some things.

"Keelah, he's fast. He's got a lot of determination. He's got such a...good body I must say. I wonder what he's like in..." Tali said not knowing that I was hearing every word.

"Ahem." I said getting her attention.

"Alex! I was just uh...checking the levels of the drive core." Tali said nervously trying to block the screen.

"Oh, really? Do the levels always have footage of my MMA fights?" I asked with a smirk on my face.

"I uh, j-just uuhh." Tali got more nervous as I was catching on to her.

Then I said "Tali, calm down. There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

Tali then said the same thing "There's s-something I've been meaning to tell you."

"I have feelings for you. I'm telling now that I'm in love with you." I said.

"I have the same feelings for you too. Ever since you saved me from Saren's men and those Thorian creepers. And learning about your past. You look like a person who wants comfort and peace, but just never found it." Tali said.

"You know you're right about that. I've never had someone to love. I never thought that I would find love." I said. "But how far could we go?" I asked

"I think you and I could go far." Tali said.

We didn't realize it, but during the conversation started to hold her hands.

"But what about the suit? If you take it off, you'll die." I said.

"I know that. But I think I can find a way to improve my immune system." Tali said.

"Well, I think we should wait on that. After all were just telling each other that we have feelings for each other." I said.

"Alex gear up. You, me, Wrex, and Liara are going to Noveria." Shepard said over the intercom.

"Sorry. Duty calls." I said.

I head up with my gear. We were approaching Noveria and Joker was talking to the docking officer over the radio.

"This is the SSV Normandy request permission to dock." Joker said.

"Your arrival was not scheduled, Normandy. Our defense grid is armed and tracking you. Please specify your reason for arrival."

"It's a Citadel matter. We have two Council spectres onboard."

"Landing access granted, Normandy. We will do a check on identification. If it does not check out, your ship will be seized and impounded."

"What a lovely bunch. I think I'll take my next leave here." Joker said sarcastically.

We dock on Noveria. We walk across the docking port only to be stopped by three police officers.

"That's far enough." one of the officers said.

"Were not here to cause problems." Shepard said.

"Your arrival was unscheduled. State your credentials." the officer said.

"State yours first." Shepard said.

"I'm Captain Matsuo of the Noveria Security Force. Now state yours."

"I'm Commander John Shepard. This is Lieutenant Alex Kampfer. We're both part of the Citadel's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch." Shepard stated.

"Load of shit, ma'am." another officer said.

"We'll need to do a check on that. Also, weapons are not permitted on Noveria. Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons." Captain Matsuo said.

We end up pulling thus starting a stand off.

"Shepard, I am not letting them take my firearms away. I sure as hell don't want them to touch my eskrima stick." I said.

"You brought an eskrima stick?" Shepard asked still keeping his pistol trained on the Captain.

"Yeah, my grandmaster's friend from the Philippines gave it to me. I don't want some cop taking it away from me. Plus you never know who you come across." I said.

"Easy, everyone. We don't need a bloodbath." Shepard said to us.

"Captain Matsuo, stand down. We confirmed their ID. Spectres are permitted to carry weapons here." a voice over the intercom said.

"You may proceed. We hope that the rest of your visit will be less confrontational. Parasini-san will meet you upstairs." the Captain said.

"Behave yourselves." Sergeant Sterling said.

We head up stairs to see a weapons detector. It goes off when we pass through it.

"Weapons detectors. Don't mind the alarms." a woman said.

"Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"I'm Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. We apologize for the incident in the docking bay." Gianna said.

"We appreciate your help." I said.

"You understand that our security chief was only doing her job. One of my duties is orientations of new arrivals. Do you have any questions?" Gianna said.

"Anybody unusual pass through here recently?" Shepard said.

"Well, an asari matriarch passed though here recently. Lady Benezia."

"Can I speak with her?"

"Lady Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex a few days ago. To the best of my knowledge she's still there."

"I need to get there and speak with her."

"You'll need clearance from Administrator Anoleis to leave the port. His office is on the left on the main level."

"Thank you."

We head to the elevator leading to the main level. As we stand there Liara become surprised that her mother is actually on Noveria.

"I can't believe it. She's here. I suppose you want to talk to me, Commander." Liara said.

"It's alright. I trust you, Liara." Shepard said.

"It is just that since my mother works with Saren, the others would think that I will betray you." Liara said.

"You worry too much. We all trust you. You don't need to feel like you're a traitor to everyone." I said.

We arrive at the main level and head to the administrator's office to see Gianna at her desk.

"Hello again, Commander." Gianna said.

"Hello. Can we speak to your administrator?" Shepard said.

"Hold on. I'll ring for him. Mr. Anoleis." Gianna said.

"Yes? What? What?" Anoleis asked in a quick matter.

"Commander Shepard wishes to speak to you." Gianna told him.

"Yes. Sure. Come in." Anoleis said.

We walk into the administrator's office to see a salarian sitting at his desk. His face spelled corruption. I could tell within seconds that he's taking money from somebody who's higher up.

"Do you mind if I don't stand up. I don't have time to entertain spaceborn vegabonds, and colonial rubes." Anoleis said.

I hated the bastard right away. Colonial rube. How dare he say that slur in front of me.

"You have a problem with spacers and colonials?" Shepard asked.

"With any transcend population. Unreliable consumer bases. Tax-dodgers, maybe. And colonists have no appreciation for economics. Protectionists and communists, all of them." Anoleis said.

I retain myself as best as I could. I let Shepard do the talking. I wanted to lunge at that bastard. He called me a colonial rube right to my face. He doesn't understand a colonist's life and I doubt he ever will.

"This greeting is a courtesy. I'm only cooperating because I'm required to by the Executive Board. Businesses come here to avoid the second guessing of galactic law." Anoleis said.

"We're not here to investigate your tenants." Shepard said.

"Nevertheless, I have a responsibility to keep you away from them." Anoleis said.

"We're looking for Matriarch Benezia." Shepard said.

"She arrived here several day ago. She was accompanied by a personal escort and some cargo. She's up at Peak 15."

"I need to see her."

"I'm afraid you can't. Peak 15 is a private facility in the Skadi Mountains. Plus there is a blizzard in the area. Shuttles are grounded and surface access is cut off."

"Surface access? Hmmm."

"Cut off, I said. The roads are not suitable for travel. Don't make an issue over this."

"I have no more questions at this time."

"Good. I received a dozen urgent messages while you dithered about."

We leave the office. Then we hear Gianna say "You know he's not the only one that can get you a garage pass."

"Who else is there?" I asked.

"Talk to Lorik Qui'in. He's in the bar at the other end of the main level. I'd say more, but within earshot of Mr. Anoleis."

"Thanks."

We head across the level to find an elevator that leads to the bar. We find Lorik sitting at a table.

The turian looked up at us and said "Good afternoon. Sit down. Have a drink. What can I do for you?"

"Are you Lorik Qui'in? I heard that you might be able to help us." Shepard said.

"What can an old turian like me do to help? You're the two human spectres are you not?" Lorik asked.

"We need a garage pass."

"You need a pass, huh? I'm the manager of the local Synthetic Insights office. For the moment at least."

"What do you mean?"

"Administrator Anoleis closed my office. Claims that he's investigating rumors of my corruption. He's an interesting person. He's become wealthy since he took over rents."

"I sense a connection."

"Indeed. I have evidence of Anoleis's corruption, but it's on the computer in my office. Anoleis is having his thugs ransack my office to find it. I sense that your goal is outside this station. Maybe we can help each other out."

"Sure."

"I need you to go into my office and retrieve the evidence. If you get it and bring it back to me, I will give you my garage pass and a sum of credits."

"Alright. We'll do it."

"I'll warn you now, violence against Anoleis's thugs may be necessary. He has officers from Hanshan's security team searching my office. Anoleis is bribing them. Captain Matsuo is innocent though. She is not aware of their illegal activities."

"They're crooks. Menaces to society. I can kill criminals."

"Great. Here's the pass to my office. It will unlock the elevator leading to it, and it will unlock the door to my office. This OSD has an encryption key that will take the evidence from my computer. Just slide it in and it will auto-execute."

"Alright."

"And please try not to stain the carpets with blood."

"I'll do my best."

We head to the elevator to go to Lorik's office. We use the pass to unlock the elevator. We head up to the office.

Shepard then talks to us in the elevator "Alright. Have your weapons ready. If they open fire, take them down."

"Got it." I replied.

"I'm not sure about this." Liara said.

"Relax, Liara. Remember they're crooks. They're breaking the laws they swore to uphold." Shepard said.

"Let's do this." Wrex said eager to blow away some crooked cops.

We exit the elevator only to be stopped by several corrupt cops.

"What do you think you're doing here?" one of the crooked cops asks.

"We're here for the evidence." Shepard said.

"Like hell you are!" the cop snapped and started to open fire.

We return fire, mowing down the cops in front of us.

"Okay. It doesn't look like they're gonna play nice. Fire at will." Shepard told us.

We move towards the stairs to the second when four more corrupt cops fire at us. I return fire, killing one of them before taking cover. I pop up again to kill another cop. I land a headshot with my assault rifle. Then Wrex blows away the other two cops with his shotgun. Then the two more cops pop out from behind two small crates. Liara throws one towards a wall with her biotics while Shepard shoot the other. We then head towards Lorik's office. We unlock the door and put the OSD into Lorik's computer. We get the evidence and leave the office. We near the elevator when we're stopped again by more corrupt cops.

"Hold it right there. Anoleis would throw you off this world for what you've done. Not me." Sergeant Stirling said. "You know what we did to cop killers on my world?"

"You're just a bunch of crooked cops taking bribe money. You swore to uphold the law instead you're breaking it. I have no sorrow for what we did." I said.

"If it's a fight you want, Sergeant. It's a fight you'll get." Shepard said.

"Fine! Kill those bastards!" Sergeant Stirling shouts before whipping out her shotgun.

Liara tosses one of the cops with her biotics before shooting another. I fire at Sergeant Stirling. That bitch knows how to wield a shotgun. Before we knew our weapons overheated. She whips out a baton and I whip out my eskrima stick. Shepard and Wrex kill the last several cops before pointing their guns at Stirling.

"No! She's wants a one on one fight with me. Don't interfere." I told them.

They stood off to the side. Stirling charges me swinging her baton at me. I continuously block her attack and then I realized that she's guard the legs. I smack her right knee with my stick a couple times. She backed away to rub her knee. She charges again, but this land a good hit to the left side of her skull. She falls over, but she gets back up. She tries to swing for my legs. I jump and deliver a downward smack on the top of her head. While she was recovering from the hit, I hit her stomach several times. She lowers her hands to her stomach and I hit her in the face with the butt of my stick. I then deliver a final blow to the right side of her head, knocking her on the floor. I holster my stick and turn away. We head to the elevator thinking that Stirling is unconscious. We walk into the elevator when we hear "Die you little shits!"

I whip out my pistol and see Stirling pointing her pistol at us. In a split second I plug a round through her chest. She falls back as I plug her with three more rounds. She hit the floor and I head into the elevator.

"Goddess. That was a close one." Liara said.

"I know. The bitch tried to shoot me in the back." I said.

"I bet other people heard the shots." Wrex said.

We exit the elevator to find Gianna Parasini standing there. "Commander, there's been reports of noise from the Synthetic Insights office. Would you know anything about that?"

"Maybe it's Anoleis's thugs tearing up the place." Shepard said.

"A smartass, huh? Fine. I can live with that. Meet me at the bar before you talk to Qui'in." Gianna said before heading to the bar.

We head for the bar to talk with Gianna.

"Hello, Commander. Let me reintroduce myself. Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs."

"What do you want?" Shepard asked.

"The Executive Board knows that Anoleis is corrupt. I've been undercover for six months. I want you to get Lorik Qui'in to testify against Anoleis."

"We need Qui'in's garage pass."

"Don't worry. Get Qui'in to testify and I can get you your garage pass."

"Alright. I'll do it."

"Good. Thanks, Shepard."

We head over to see Qui'in in the same seat he was in earlier.

"Hello again, Commander. Have you recovered the evidence?" Lorik asked.

"Yes, but an Internal Affairs officer contacted us. She wants you to testify against Anoleis." Shepard said.

"Now that you have my property you want to dictate how I use it?" Lorik asked.

"Come on, Qui'in. The whole station is aching under Anoleis's corrupt. You might end up being a hero." I said.

Qui'in looked at both of us and sighed "Fine. I'll do it. Make whatever arrangements you need with you contact. I'll be waiting here."

"Thanks, Qui'in. You're doing Noveria a big favor." Shepard said.

We walk back over to the Administrator's office where Gianna was waiting.

"We talked to Qui'in. It took some convincing, but he said he'll testify." Shepard said.

"Good. I'll take the evidence for safe transport. You're a lifesaver, Shepard." Gianna said.

"Glad we could help." I said.

"And here's your garage pass like I promised. Now I have an arrest to make. I wish I had time to change. I hate skirts." Gianna said.

Gianna then goes into Anoleis's office to arrest him. A minute later we see Anoleis in handcuffs struggling with Gianna.

"This is an outrage! I will see that you will never work in this field again! Commander Shepard, I demand that you put this bitch under arrest!" Anoleis yelled in anger.

"I knew you were corrupt the moment I saw you. Have fun in prison, you fucking money grubbing prick." I said.

"Go to hell! All of you!" Anoleis yelled.

"You have the right to remain silent. I wish to God that you would exercise it. Thanks, Shepard. Thanks, Kampfer. I owe you two a beer." Gianna said as she escorted Anoleis to the authorities.

We head to the garage to get a vehicle and drive to Peak 15. We talk to one of the guards at the garage entrance.

"Hold it. You need a garage pass to proceed." the guard said.

"Here's my pass." Shepard said.

"That's a valid pass. Be careful out there. The roads are pretty icy." the guard said.

We walk into the garage to find that there were some crates that Benezia left behind. The crates soon burst open with geth. We pull out weapons and start firing. There were only strikers, and troopers. I focus on the strikers. I tag two before taking cover behind a mako. Shepard and Liara take down several geth while Wrex charges two geth troopers. Wrex blows the two troopers to pieces with his shotgun. Soon I find the last striker. It's directly above me. I look up and see that I was zeroing in on me. In a split second I fire at it. It falls to the floor. Then Captain Matsuo comes running in with several guards.

"What the hell is going on?" Matsuo asked.

"We had a shootout with some geth. They came out of those containers Benezia left behind." I said.

"How? We scanned them and they passed." Matsuo said in disbelief. "Check the other containers."

We head over to the mako. I start to push Shepard into letting me drive again. With his bad driving, I don't trust him for five seconds out in that blizzard.

"John, I think you should let me drive." I said.

"I'm not letting turn that icy road into the Indianapolis 500." Shepard said.

"With your horrible driving, you'll slide off an icy cliff in five seconds. Let me drive. I can do it." I said.

"I don't know." Shepard said.

"Come on. Do you think you're gonna be able to navigate through that blizzard? I've fought in weather like this several years ago, and I'm a sniper with sharp eyes." I said.

"Fine. But don't turn this into a nascar race." Shepard said.

"I promise I won't." I said.

"Good. Liara, Wrex. Come on, lets get in." Shepard said.

"Wait. Alex is driving." Wrex said nervously.

"Is there problem?" Liara said.

"I heard some stories about Alex driving like a maniac." Wrex told her.

"Alex is the only one here who can navigate through a blizzard. He was on a mission two years on a frigid planet." Shepard said.

"Yeah, I was a sniper assigned to a task force. There were biotic extremists held up in this compound. The Alliance needed my marksmanship for the mission so I was pulled off the Normandy for a bit. There were other snipers, but I was further from the compound than they were. I took out half of the guards on the outside. The leader tried to make a run for it. He got far. I had orders to terminate, so I took the shot. I made what was the longest recorded sniper kill in Alliance history. I plugged a round through the back of that bastard's skull at thirty-nine hundred meters. Nobody could've pulled off a shot like that. So that's why I'm driving. I can navigate through this kind of weather." I said.

"Alright. I'm okay as long as you don't go crazy behind the wheel." Wrex said.

We all got in the mako and headed out. Not knowing what we would encounter in that blizzard.

**Sorry if I cut out the Peak 15 part in this chapter. I'm saving it for the next chapter. Plus in future chapters I will have the assignments where you investigate Cerberus. In the next chapter Tali has a little surprise for Alex after the Noveria mission. Before you ask, NO! There is no sex yet. That will have to wait until a later chapter, because they just revealed their love for each other this chapter. I don't want to rush it. Besides, who has sex with a girl a day after meeting her. So next chapter will be the Peak 15 mission.  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alex, Shepard, Liara, and Wrex just helped clean up the corruption on Noveria. Now they're in a mako heading out to Peak 15. They don't know what they will encounter. After all, they are hunting down an asari matriarch on this frigid planet.  
**

We drive out into the frigid, cold blizzard. We drive for a couple minutes before encountering geth. There were some rocket troopers, and some juggernauts. Shepard was on the turret for this one. Luckily we were at a range where Shepard could see them. He fires the machinegun, mowing down the rocket troopers. Then he launches rockets at the juggernauts. They go flying off the cliff. We continue to move up the snowy path to find a bridge with a geth rocket turret, and a roadblock of deployable barriers. Geth rocket troopers were waiting behind them. Shepard launches a rocket at the turret, but he misses. The turret launched a rocket.

"Holy shit!" Shepard yelled.

I hit the thrusters, jumping us over the rocket.

"That was too fucking close!" I yelled.

"I'm gonna blow that goddamn turret to bits." Shepard said as he took aim.

Shepard launches the rocket and it destroys the turret.

"How do you like that?" Shepard mocked the destroyed turret.

Shepard then focuses on the rocket troopers behind the barriers. He launches rockets to destroy the barriers. He the shreds up the rocket troopers with the machinegun. One rocket trooper manages to fire a rocket that grazes the left side of the mako.

"Woah! Fucking rustbucket! Shepard, take it down!" I yelled.

"On it!" Shepard yelled back.

Shepard shoots up the last rocket trooper. It was torn to pieces by the machinegun. When I saw it get torn up, I had a flashback of Torfan. My friends we're torn up in the same fashion by the batarians. I remember seeing a close friend of mine who fought alongside me on Elysium getting shredded apart. I come back to reality. And continue to drive. We reach to other end of the bridge only to encounter more rocket troopers and juggernauts. They even had an armatre waiting for us. I take evasive maneuvers as the rockets fly past.

"Fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccck kkkk!" I shout as I drive past the rockets. "Shepard, blow those bastards to hell!"

"Alright!" Shepard yelled.

He launches rockets at the armature. The armature explodes killing some of the rocket troopers and juggernauts.

"Alex, there's five left!" Shepard yelled.

I told him with a smile on my face "Shred 'em up!"

He shreds up the five remaining geth. We continue to move up the path. We find another bridge with the same stuff as last time.

"Shepard, get ready to hit that turret. Don't miss." I told him.

He starts to zero in on the turret and said "Don't worry. I'll nail it."

He kept his word. This time he nailed it on the first try. Then he destroys the deployable shields with the rockets and mows down the rocket troopers. None of them stood a chance that time. We drive to the other end of the second bridge. We encounter more geth, but there are only juggernauts. No armatures, and no rocket troopers. Shepard launches rockets at the juggernauts. Blowing them away. We encounter two rocket turrets on the mountains. Shepard destroys the first one easily, but we had to dodge the second one several times before destroying it. We finally arrive at Peak 15. We find a vehicle turned over, and the garage door is locked. We get out of the mako and enter through the door next to the garage door.

"Weapons up. There's probably gonna be geth in the next room." Shepard said raising his assault rifle.

We pull out our weapons and enter the garage. We go in and find that there were geth waiting for us. And to make things tough, a krogan warlord. We open fire taking several geth before taking cover. We took cover behind several crates while the geth and the krogan pour heavy fire on us. I decide to use overkill. I pop out using overkill, mowing down most of the geth before turning my attention to the krogan. I spray him with assault rifle rounds. He goes down in seconds. Shepard and Liara pop out and tag several more geth. Wrex uses carnage to take down a geth destroyer.

"Clear." I said.

"Lets move in and find out what's going." Shepard said.

We approach a door leading to a hallway. We find two deactivated machinegun turrets facing inward.

"Who's the idiot that installed these turrets? Why are they facing the wrong way?" Wrex asked in irritation.

"They want to keep they're people in as much as they want to keep others out." Liara said.

"I don't get this." Shepard said.

"What's going on in this place?" I asked.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough." Wrex said.

We move into another room to encounter only a few geth troopers. We kill the instantly. We then hear rattling and thumping.

"What was that?" Liara asked nervously.

"Probably the breeze. Don't have a panic attack, I'll protect you." Wrex said.

All of a sudden some huge bugs come crawling towards us. They were half the size of the mako. We start to fire at them. I kill two of them while Liara tossed one with her biotics. We began to wonder what they were.

"What the hell were those things?" Wrex asked.

"I don't know. Xenobiology is not my field." Liara said.

"I bet someone in the labs knows what they are." I said.

"We got to find out what's going on." Shepard said.

We enter a room with a VI core and a door on each side of the room. One door lead to the reactor while the other lead to the tram station. We hear a message over the intercom saying that the main reactor was offline, there were loose contaminates, the landlines were offline, and the VI core was offline. We find the VI core at the other side of the room and I start to work on it. It was frustrating to repair, but after twenty minutes it was fixed.

"It looks like your trying to restore this facility. Would you like some help?" the VI asked.

"Help would be great. Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"This platform is referred to as Mira. Who are you?"

"I'm Commander John Shepard. I'm a spectre."

"Checking identity. One moment please...Identity is verified. You are entitled access to all systems."

"What caused the main reactor to shut down?"

"I'm sorry. I was offline when the reactor was shut down. Shut down could be a result of catastrophic failure, or loose contaminates. The frigid environment is known to kill loose contaminates, even mechanical ones."

"What happened to the landlines?"

"The landlines are connected to my mainframes. They were disconnected. They must be repair manually. This can be done on the roof of the operating station."

"That's it for now."

"Very well, Commander. Logging you out."

We head up to the roof to fix the landlines. We encounter more of those big bugs. We start to open fire. I use overkill to mow them down. Wrex uses carnage to blow one of them away. Then some smaller bugs appear.

"Holy shit! They have smaller ones too!" I yell as I shoot the little bastards.

Wrex stomps the smaller bugs as he laughs. I stomp some too. After several minutes they were dead. We move up to fix the landlines.

"I'll get to work on these." I said.

"Alright. We got your back." Shepard said.

I was done in a couple minutes. Shepard was amazed at my tech skills.

"You're a miracle worker, Alex." Shepard said.

"Well I was a somewhat of a tech-geek growing up." I said.

We head back down to the room to find the main reactor. We head to the door with the reactor symbol on it. We head down the hallway past the door. We find a door leading a room with a door on each side. We enter the reactor room. We encounter geth in the room. There were four geth strikers, two destroyers, and a sniper. I focus on the strikers. I take down two of them. Liara and Shepard shoot up one of the destroyers and the sniper. Wrex blows away the other with his shotgun. I tag another striker before the last one lunges at me. I've seen a striker lunge a person. I struggle with the machine.

"Get off of me, you fucking piece of shit!" I yell as I struggle with the striker.

Its head blaster zeroes in on my face. I start to panic.

"Somebody, shoot this fucking thing!" I shout in fear of death.

Wrex blasts the striker off of me. I sigh in relief.

"Thanks, Wrex. That thing would've blown my head off." I said.

"No problem. Now lets fix this thing." Wrex said.

I work on the reactor. I fix the wiring and in a minute the reactor was back on. We head back to the core room. We then head to the tram station. We find that the decontamination chamber is locked. We head into the room next to the decontamination chamber. We find a Mira terminal.

"Hello, Commander. Do you have an additional query?" Mira asked.

"What's this about loose contaminates?" Shepard said.

"There are loose contaminates in the decontamination chamber. The only way to terminate them is to activate the failsafe. User alert: failsafe is inoperable."

"How do we get the failsafe working?"

"The failsafe can be repaired with omni-gel."

Shepard then looks at me and said "Alex, use your magic."

"Already on it." I said as I began to fix the failsafe. I fixed it in no time. Then the failsafe was activated. We see that there were more of those bugs in the decontamination chamber. They were burned instantly by the failsafe system. We move through the decontamination chamber and find a tram. We get on and it takes us to the labs. When we arrive at the labs and get off the tram. We head into an elevator going up. We reach the upper levels of the lab and find a soldier and several guards in defensive positions.

"Jeez! You had us scared for a moment. We thought you might be one of those rachni." the soldier said.

"It's alright. I would've done the same thing." Shepard said.

"I'm Captain Ventralis. My men and I have been protecting this position for a few days now. When the rachni broke free, they massacred everybody in the hot labs. Only Han Olar got out and he's not all there."

"We're looking for Matriarch Benezia. We heard that she was here."

"Last I heard she was down in the hot labs."

"Thanks. And your doing a good job keeping these people safe."

"Yeah, but it doesn't feel like..." Captain Ventralis's sentence was cut off by the sound of rachni crawling through the vents.

"Hell! Man the perimeter!" the Captain yells.

We ready our weapons. Just then a huge vent cover is knocked of and several rachni come crawling out. We start to spray them with rounds. They wnet down quickly. Plus with Ventralis and his men it made the fight a little shorter.

"Jesus! They keep sending a small group every hour to hit us. You better get down to the hot labs and see if the Matriarch is okay." Captain Ventralis said.

We nod at him and head down in the elevator. We find another elevator leading to the hot labs. We head down to the hot labs expecting to find Benezia. We head into the hot labs to find a scientist.

"Are you here to help?" the scientist asked.

"Are you alright?" Shepard asked the scientist.

"Yes." the scientist replied

"What happened here?" Shepard asked.

"It is our fault. We brought back the rachni. And now they're killing everyone." the scientist said.

"Those were rachni? Impossible. My people wiped them out years ago." Wrex said in disbelief.

"We found a derelict ship that had an egg that was centuries old. We used the egg to bring the rachni. We bred a queen to give birth to a rachni army." the scientist explained.

"How do we get rid of them?" I asked.

"We must activate the neutron purge. It will wipe out the rachni, but we must escape this room before the purge goes off." the scientist said.

Then Liara asked out of curiousity "Why?"

"Because the purge will wipe us out too." the scientist said.

"So we have to activate the purge and then run to the elevator." I said.

"Yes. I will put in the key and..." the scientist's sentence is cut off when he get impaled by a rachni arm.

The rachni tossed the scientist aside and focused on us. We kill it instantly. It was obvious that Benezia was not on this floor. I get the code key from the scientist's body and to the door at the other end of the room.

"Wait in the elevator, guys. I'll do this." I said.

"Are you sure? The rachni will tear you to pieces before you reach the elevator." Wrex said.

"He's right. They'll rip you to bits." Shepard said.

"Shepard, you know me. I can do this. Besides if I die, you can still fight Benezia." I said.

"Alright. But don't mess up." Shepard said.

"Are you insane, Shepard? You letting him walk to his death!" Liara yelled.

"I know what I'm doing." I said as head to the door leading to the purge controls.

I walk into the room to see another Mira terminal.

"Hello, I am Mira. Who are you?" Mira asked.

"I'm Lieutenant Alex Kampfer. I'm a with the Citadel's Special Tactics and Reconnassance branch." I said.

"Checking identification. One moment please...identity confirmed. You are granted access to all systems, Lieutenant."

"Activate the neutron purge."

"I'm sorry, but I will need the purge activation code."

"Code input: 875020079 code Omega local execution."

"Verified. Omega local execution in one hundred twenty seconds."

"Okay. Now I gotta get out."

I open the door to see dozons of rachni waiting for me. I pull out my pistol. I then dash through them while shooting at them. As I'm nearing the elevator, one of the rachni knocked me down. I try to crawl away, but then the rachni starts to pull me away. I try to reach for my pistol, but it's out of my reach by a few inches. I try to reach for it. The rachni begins to scratch my armor. It scratched down to my skin and I scream in pain. I try once again to get my pistol. I finally get it and plug a round through the rachni's skull. In the end I didn't care whether I made it out or not. I was morely focused on destroying the rachni. Everybody was right, I am reckless. I get up and start running towards the elevator. I reach just in time. When we go up, we hear the neutron purge go off. Every last rachni in this facility was eliminated.

"You're nuts. You were almost torn to pieces." Wrex said.

"You're insane! How could you do that and be so self-less?" Liara asked in anger.

"What the hell happened to your chestplate?" Shepard asked.

"A rachni scratch it up." I said.

"I can see you skin and some cuts through the slits in there." Wrex said.

"Are you gonna be good to fight?" Shepard asked.

"Hell yeah." I said pulling out my assault rifle.

We arrive at the tram station and take the other elevator to the upper labs to find Benezia. We exit the elevator to find Captain Ventralis and his men were not at the perimeter. We head in through the door at the end of a hallway next to the perimeter. We go in find Captain Ventralis and his men pointing their weapons at us.

"Sorry, Shepard. Benezia's orders." the Captain said.

"And the survivors you were protecting." Shepard asked.

"We move them to the quarantine zone. Men open fire." the Captain simply said.

His men open fire and we take cover behind some storage containers. I fire my assault rifle taking out two men before popping back behind my cover. Wrex uses his shotgun to blasting Captain Ventralis away. Liara then uses her biotics to toss a container at three men. We move into the next room to find more men working for Benezia. We mow several of them down before two other men take cover behind a container. One pops his head up and I plug a couple rounds through it. The other tries to make a run, but Shepard mows him down. We head into a room to find Benezia observing a tank with the rachni queen.

"You truly don't understand the hardships of raising a daughter. Her children were to be ours. And I won't ease up on you no matter who you bring into this confrontation." Benezia said while observing the tank.

"Liara is here, because she wants to be here." Shepard said.

"What have you told them about me, Liara?" Benezia said.

"What could I say? That you've gone mad? That you're insane? Should I explain to them how to kill you? What could I say?" Liara questioned her mother.

"Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have." Benezia said before a sqaud of asari commandos come running in with weapons at the ready.

"Shit." I simply said remembering Shiala's clones on Feros.

This day was gonna be longer. I immediately fire at the commandos. It was going to be a bitch to take them down, because they had strong shields. I decide to use overkill to wear their shields down. I fire at a couple of them trying to move in on our left flank. Their shields go bye bye and I kill the two asari. Shepard uses a similar tactic. When the other two asaris's shield are worn down and Wrex blows them away with shotgun using carnage. Soon we Benezia becoming weaker. She sends more asari commandos and a some geth troopers. We easy take down the geth troopers as they enter. The asari start pushing towards us. Luckily we drop two of them with our combined firepower. A third one gets in close and soon I resort to my martial arts. She throws a right jab. I catch her right arm and bring my leg over it and kick her face. She falls to the floor, but she gets up in a couple seconds. Before she could throw punches again, I do a tornado kick to her face. She goes down and I get my assault rifle. We kill the last asari commando of that group. Benezia becomes even weaker and sends one last group of asari commandos and one last group of geth. This time the geth squad had a juggernaut in it. We mow down several geth before taking cover behing some crates. Once again I use overkill to take down an asari commando. I wear down the shields and take her down. Shepard and Wrex take care of the other three while Liara tosses some crates at some geth troopers. Soon I see the juggernaut zero in on me. I pull out my shotgun.

I look at the juggernaut and yell "Not today motherfucker!"

I use carnage to blow up the menacing beast. I was tired of juggernauts hitting me with rockets. When the commandos were dead, we find Benezia trying to get up.

"This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. His light fills my mind. Everything is clear." Benezia said.

"The rachni seem to disagree. What's Saren's next move?" Shepard asked.

"I won't betray him. You will not...you. You must listen. Saren's voice still whispers in my head. But I can fight off his compulsions briefly. The indoctrination is powerful." Benezia said.

"So you might attack us again?" I asked.

"Yes. The indoctrination clwed at my mind. I was weak. I couldn't stop it. I'm nothing but a tool for Saren. He sent me here to find the coordinates to the Mu Relay that was lost many years ago." Benezia told us.

"You can still make things right. Give us the coordinates." I said.

"Here. Now you have to stop me. His teeth are biting my mind. His claws are shredding my conscious. Make it stop!" Benezia said.

"Mother! Please fight him off!" Liara yelled.

"You always made me proud, Liara. Die!" Benezia turned on us after the indoctrination took over.

We all open fire and immediately take down. We approach her to see her slowly dying.

"Goodbye my sweet rose. May the sun shine on you again. There's no light. They always said there would be a light." those were Benezia's last words before dying.

We look at her body when all one of the dead commandos gets up. The body walks to the container. Soon the body speaks.

"This one serves as our voice. We cannot see them. Not in these low spaces. Your musics are colorless." the body says.

"Musics? What?" Shepard asked in confusion.

"Your way of communicating is strange. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all. We are the mother we sing for those left. The children you thought were silenced. We are rachni." the queen said.

Shepard looks at the body then the queen "How are you controlling the asari's body?"

"Our kind sings through touchings of thought. We pluck the strings and the other one understands. She is weak to urging. She has colors there are no names for. But she is ending. It is beautiful. The child we birthed were stolen from us before they could sing. They are lost in the silence. They cannot be saved. They can only cause harm." the queen said.

"Are you sure they can't be saved?" Shepard asked.

"Their saving is far from able. Do what you must. You make the decision. Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?" the queen said.

"I won't exterminate your entire race. You'll go free." Shepard said.

"You'll let us sing our musics again? You will compose a new song for future generations of our kind?" the queen said.

"Yes." Shepard said as he pushed the button that released the queen into the wilderness.

The queen heads off into the wild to restart the rachni race. We look to Liara and wonder if she was.

"Liara, are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm half okay. Half of me has sorrow for my mother, and the other half is happy that we didn't kill off the rachni." Liara said.

"Come on. Lets head back to the ship." Shepard said.

"Alright. Good I need some time away from the cold." Wrex said as we followed Shepard.

An hour later we were in the comm room talking about the mission.

"So what's next, Commander? Head for the Mu Relay?" Ashley said.

"We shouldn't just rush into it." Shepard said.

"The Commander is right. We can't just rush in blind without any leads." Liara said.

Ashley looked at Liara in an irritated way "Oh, I'm sorry. Did the Commander resign while I wasn't looking."

Shepard shot her a glare and told her "She's just trying to help, Ash."

Ashley looked at Shepard and apologized "Sorry, Commander."

"Dismissed." Shepard said to everyone.

"Commander. Lieutenant. The Noveria was sent to the Council. Want me to patch them through the comm link?" Joker asked.

"Patch them through, Joker." Shepard said.

The Council pooped up on our comm link.

"Shepard? Is this report accurate? You found rachni on Noveria?" the asari councilor asked.

"And then you released the queen? What were you two thinking?" the turian councilor asked in anger.

"This queen was different. She understood why her race had to be wiped out the last time." Shepard said.

"Lets hope you're right or our future grandchildren will pay for it." the turian councilor said.

"We have no leads right now. We'll inform you if we find any. Good luck, you two." the salarian councilor said.

The Council fades away.

"You know the deal. I'll be down in engineering." I told Shepard.

"You should have Doctor Chakwas take a look at those scratches." Shepard said.

"Fine. I'm heading over to the med-bay." I said as I walk off.

I sit in the med-bay with my shirt off as Doctor Chakwas examines the scars on my chest.

"The rachni's claws seem to have made some deep cuts. You're lucky. Most men would have blacked out from that kind of scarring." Doctor Chakwas said.

"Will I be good for tomorrow?" I asked.

"You should be. I'll stitch those scars up." Doctor Chakwas said.

"Thanks, Doc." I said.

"It's my job to stitch up the wounded. What were you thinking? Why did you try to rush through a crowd of rachni?" Doctor Chakwas said.

"Doc, you should know how reckless I am. It's a good thing that I didn't drag Shepard, Wrex, and Liara with me." I said.

"They could've gotten you out of there without you getting yourself scarred." the Doctor said.

"I've gotten scarred so many times that I don't care anymore. To me these scars are just another bunch to add to the collection of scars I have." I said.

She stitched me up and I laid on the bed on the right side at the far end of the room. I hear the med-bay door open. I turn my head to see Tali walking over to my bed. She saw the scarring on my chest.

"I heard it was rough on Noveria." Tali said.

"You don't know half of it." I said with a smile.

She looked at my chest to see the scars on my chest "What happened to your chest?"

"I tried to dash through a couple dozen rachni. Then one knocked me down and scratched my chest up." I told her.

"Keelah! What were you thinking?" Tali said.

"Hey, come on. Liara already spassed at me for that." I said.

Tali calmed herself. She was morely relieved that I made it out alive. I could've died if I didn't reach for my pistol.

"I was thinking about our talk earlier. I realized that we admitted our love for each other, but we don't much about each other." I said.

"You're right about that. Why don't you start?" Tali asked.

"You first." I simply said.

"Fine. I was raised on the Rayya. My mother died when I was young and my father taught me everything I knew. He's one of the Admirals on the Admiralty Board so we have a lot of respect. I like music, ships, and shotguns. I was on my Pilgrimage when I was shot. Saren's men found out I had the evidence so they hunted me down. Then you saved me. Now you." Tali said.

"I was raised on Mindoir. My parents were killed by batarian slavers when I was thirteen. I was then raised by Grandmaster Ling Midori for several years before I enlisted in the Alliance. I fought batarian slavers on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz. I held my position until reinforcements came. Like Shepard I was awarded a Star of Terra for my actions on Elysium. Two years after I fought on Torfan. That was a slaughterhouse. Three-fourths of my unit got killed, because our commanding officer was too reckless. More reckless than I am. The rest of our unit finished the mission. We had to fight batarians hand to hand. I hold nothing, but shame for killing men with my bare hands. Then three years after I was sent a sniper on mission to eliminate a leader of a biotic extremist group. That's where I land the longest recorded kill in Alliance history. Then I fought on Eden Prime. Then I met you." I said.

"Sounds like you've had it rough in your career." Tali said.

"I know. Me and Shepard are like the poster boys of the Alliance. Whenever somebody sees me they think 'I want to be like him.' That's what they think when they see Shepard." I said.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tali said.

"I've done horrible things in my life. And no one else should have to go through those things. I have still have dreams about Torfan. Watching my friends getting slaughtered by enemy fire. Having to kill men with my bare hands. The blood spattering across my face and armor. I never want to go through that again." I said.

"It was war. Everyone had a rough time with it. It was hard for me trying to get away from Saren's men after being shot. The turian on the Citadel denied me asylum even when I told them about the evidence. Then he called a suit rat." Tali said.

"What an asshole. He denies you safety and insults you? He has no right. You're not a suit rat. You're a beautiful quarian women on a mission to save the galaxy." I said.

"Thanks. You're the first person I came across on my Pilgrimage who hasn't insulted or attempted to kill me. It's been hard lately." Tali said.

I look at her and said "Tali, look at me. Look at me. It'll be alright. You'll find something to help you complete your Pilgrimage. After all we're fighting geth, I'm sure they have something useful. But for right now head back down to engineering and think about what we're gonna do. I'll be fine." I said with reasuring smile.

"O-okay." Tali said.

Then she leaves and I stay on the med-bay bed. I stare at the ceiling wondering what's goona be next. I fall into a deep sleep.

The next morning I wake up to see Shepard, Doctor Chakwas, and Tali standing next to my bed.

"Hey. How do you feel?" Shepard asked.

"I'm feeling better." I said.

"He should be good for today." Doctor Chakwas said.

"Good. We're gonna need him." Tali said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We received a message from Admiral Kahoku. He said the recon team he sent into the Sparta system in the Artemis Tau cluster dissappeared. They were investigating suspicious activity on Edolus. He wants us to find out what happened." Shepard said.

"Alright. Just let me get up and get my gear." I said.

I sit up to get out of the bed. Tali helps me stand up.

"Thanks." I said.

"No problem." Tali replied.

"Get your gear and meet me, Tali, and Garrus at the cargo bay." Shepard said.

I gave him a simple nod and head off to get my gear. I put on my armor with a new chestplate on and prepare my weapons. I head the cargo bay to see the others waiting for me.

"Alright. We're gonna drop on the planet in the mako. Then find the source of the distress beacon." Shepard said.

"Wait. There's a distress beaon?" I asked.

"Yeah, we picked it up on our sonar as we got close to the planet." Garrus said.

"Everybody in." Shepard said.

We all get in and drop on Edolus. I kept wondering about what could've happened. Is it a trap by the geth? Slaver pirates? Mercenaries? I didn't know. All I knew was that something fishy was going on. I did not like it one bit. We drive off to find the missing team.


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for delay I haven't had much spare time. Plus I was trying to squeeze that moon mission, and the Cerberus missions into one chapter. Alex, Shepard, Tali, and Garrus are now in a mako driving across Edolus. They are searching for the recon team that went missing. But on the approach for the planet, they picked up a distress beacon from the planet's surface. They don't know what they're gonna find.**

We drive across the planet's surface to find the missing team. Shepard allowed me to drive again while Garrus operated the turret. For once there wasn't resistance when we got there. I was sure there was gonna be resistance later. But it's nice to land on a planet without being shot at. We drive further to find an open area where the distress beacon. We move in closer in the mako to see if the recon team.

"I don't like this, Shepard." I said trusting my gut feeling.

"I don't like this neither. I've got a bad feeling about this." Shepard said.

All of a sudden a thresher maw comes out from the ground in a raging fit.

"Holy shit!" I yell while looking at the beast.

"Get us moving!" Garrus yelled.

I start to drive like a maniac to dodge the acid the thresher maw was spitting. I drove around the beast as Garrus fired the machinegun and rocket launcher on the turret at it. After several hits the thresher maw went underground.

"Where did it go?" Tali asked.

"Lets be ready when it pops up again." Garrus said.

The thresher maw pops out of the ground in front of us.

"Fucking hell!" I shout.

Garrus fires more rounds and rocket at it as I drive around it. It goes underground again.

"Dammit! How many times is it going to play this game?" Shepard asked in anger.

We drive around for a minute before that monster pops up again.

"This time kill it, Garrus!" I yell to him.

"Got it!" Garrus replied.

He start to fire rockets at the thresher maw. I start to drive directly at it.

"What in the hell are you doing, Alex?" Shepard asked.

"Trust me! Garrus, keep firing at it!" I yelled.

We head towards the thresher maw while Garrus continues to fire rockets at it. Finally the beast goes down. I slow down to observe the dead thresher maw.

"Finally. It's fucking dead." I said.

We get out to find that the marines from the recon team were dead.

"Looks like they were lured here by the distress signal. Someone must have set it up to make sure they were killed by the thresher maw." I said.

"Come on. Lets go tell Admiral Kahoku about this." Shepard said.

"Alright." I said.

"It's hard to believe that they bested these men." Garrus said.

"That's a horrible way to go." Tali said.

Then Shepard calls Joker over his communicator "Joker, come pick us up. We're done here."

"Aye aye, Commander. ETA five minutes." Joker replied.

Back on the Normandy we discuss the mission.

"Who the hell would use a distress beacon to lure a small recon team to open area with a thresher maw underground." I asked.

"Somebody with a grudge against the Alliance that's for sure." Shepard said.

"They real question is 'how they got the beacon there without being crushed by the thresher maw?' and they left no trace for us to follow." Garrus said.

"They must be really good. Too good to be slavers or mercenaries. They must be black ops or something close to that." Tali said.

"We won't know until we tell Admiral Kahoku. Maybe he knows something." Shepard said.

"I haven't seen Kahoku since the Blitz. He was my CO." I said "Remember him, Shepard. He is one of the most toughest Alliance officers I've seen. He fought so distinctly during the Blitz. I swear that no one else could've lead men like he did."

"Joker, get us to the Citadel." Shepard told him.

"Aye aye, Commander." Joker replied.

We arrive at the Citadel. Me, Shepard, Tali, and Garrus head to the Presidium to tell Admiral Kahoku the bad news. Although he was delighted to see me still in one piece.

"Admiral Kahoku." I said saluting him.

"Oh, Lieutenant!" the Admiral said saluting me back.

"It's been a long time, Admiral. I heard that were promoted to Rear Admiral." I said.

"That's right. And I heard that you went from Chief Petty Officer to Lieutenant." Admiral Kahoku said.

"Hello, Admiral." Shepard said.

"And this must be the other poster boy of the Alliance. Commander John Shepard." the Admiral said.

"I hate to dampen the mood, but we have some bad news about your recon team." Shepard said.

"What happen?" the Admiral said as his mood dampened.

"They were killed by a thresher maw. There was a distress beacon that lured them there. When we arrived, we killed the thresher maw and found your men dead." Shepard said.

"Dammit! I was right. It was Cerberus." the Admiral said in anger.

"Cerberus, sir?" I asked.

"Cerberus is a black ops group formed by the Alliance military. There have been recent rumors that they went rogue. That they've turned into some kind of pro-human splinter group." Admiral Kahoku said.

"What kind of things have they been doing?" I asked.

"Performing harsh experiments. Experiments for crazy ideas. They're turning into a threat to other species." Admiral Kahoku said.

"What are you going to do?" Shepard asked.

"I'm gonna actually talk to the Shadow Broker. I need him to get me info so I can track Cerberus's movements." Admiral Kahoku said.

"Won't the brass give you hell for that?" Garrus asked.

"I was authorized to use any means to find out what Cerberus was doing. I'm gonna take care of it now. Thanks for telling me about my men. And it was good to see you again, Alex" Admiral Kahoku said as he was walking away.

"It looks like he can handle it from here. Lets go get our supplies. We'll split up. Tali, you go with Alex to get us some heat sinks, and some rail extensions. Garrus and I will get some biotic and tech upgrades." Shepard said.

"Alright." Tali said.

We split to get our things.

"I guessing put you with me, because he knows about us? I heard you two talking the night I got drunk." I said.

"How did you hear that? You were out cold and you were in your sleeping pod." Tali said.

"I wasn't really out cold, but I still couldn't walk. And I could hear you through the pod. That's how I found out about your affection for me." I told her.

"Your good if you heard that whole conversation while you were drunk." Tali said.

"I know." I replied.

As we walked we saw a pharmacy. Tali saw that they had some herbal supplements and some immunoboosters.

"Oh, look. This store has some immunoboosters." Tali said.

I immediately knew where she was going with this. She wanted to boost her immune system so she can take her suit off to have you know what with me.

"Tali, I know where you're going with this. It's too soon." I said.

Suddenly her mood shifted from happy to moderately upset "I could lose you the next day. I could be alone, because you might die. I know you think we're rushing it, but we're on a dangerous mission that could cost us our lives. I want to make the most of our time."

I start to understand "Fine, but could we wait a little longer before we do it."

"Okay." she simply replied as she went to buy the herbal supplements and immunoboosters.

We went and got our heat sinks and rail extensions. We then meet up with Shepard and Garrus at the docking port.

"Did you get the weapon upgrades?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Good. We'll need them for another mission." Shepard said.

We head into the Normandy and head to the galaxy map. We then receive a message from Admiral Hackett.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer. This is Admiral Hackett. We have a situation." he said.

"What's the situation, Admiral?" Shepard asked.

"We have a training complex on Earth's moon that's used for live fire training, but the AI that controls the drones for the exercise is not responding. It's not responding to our override commands. It's gone rogue." Admiral Hackett said.

"How many casualties?" I asked.

"Seventeen marines died in the training exercises before we knew what happened." Admiral Hackett said.

"What do you need us to do?" Shepard asked.

"I need you two to fight through the training course and destroy the AI cores. I know you two are spectres, but you're still part of the human race and a part of the Alliance." Admiral Hackett said.

"We'll do it." Shepard said.

"Good luck, you two. Hackett out." the Admiral said.

"Alex, get Ashley and Kaiden ready for this mission." Shepard said.

"Sure thing." I said.

I went down to the mess hall to find Kaiden and Ashley.

"Kaiden. Ashley. I need the both of you get your gear. We're going to the moon." I said.

"What's going LT?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah, what going on?" Kaiden asked.

"We have an Alliance training complex with a rogue AI. We need to take it out. The damn thing has already killed seventeen marines." I said.

"What? We'll be in the cargo bay in a couple minutes." Kaiden said.

I get my gear head to the cargo, but I head to engineering first. I thought about what Tali said. I was thinking that I should talk to her as much as possible before we're thrown into the bowels of hell.

"Hey." I said getting her attention. She was still on the left side of the engineering room.

"Hey, Alex." she replied.

"I thought about what you said. About us making the most of our time." I said as I began to hold her hands.

She saw my bag with my gear in it and asked "Where you going?"

"Me, Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley are heading to Earth's moon to take out a rogue AI. It's controlling attack drones that killed seventeen marines." I told her.

"Keelah." Tali simply said.

"Alex! You coming?" Kaiden called out.

"Yeah!" I replied "I gotta go."

"Be careful." Tali said.

"I will." I said. as I walked to the mako.

I get in the mako with Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley. We drop on the moon to see a flat area of white, rocky land. Shepard drove that time while I worked the turret. We drive for several minute before finding a little mountain. On top of that mountain was where the training complex was. We drove up to see three little buildings that lead to the underground training complex. There were rocket turrets on the buildings that started firing at us. I fired back with the machinegun destroying two of them. There were four others that were firing at us. The rockets went past us as I fired back. I take out another turret as we circled around. We went into the open again and I take out the last two. We then get out of the mako and head to the west building.

"Alright. Have your weapons ready. Those drones won't go down unless we put the down." Shepard said.

We head into the building to find a large room with lots crates for cover, and a lot of attack drones waiting for us. We take cover behind some crates.

"Shit! I didn't know there were gonna be this many!" I shouted as the drone pour fire on us.

I pop out shooting at one of the drones. It blows up and I get back behind cover. Shepard and Kaiden pop out destroy two more drones. Ashley uses overkill and mows down four more drones. I toss a grenade a destroy another two. Then all four of us destory the last five drones. They explode sending pieces of flaming metal everywhere.

"Jeez! And we have to do this for the next to buildings." Kaiden said as he looked at all of the pieces of metal.

"The AI is making these drones attack more harshly than in regular combat training." I said "They shouldn't be this aggressive. This rogue AI is gonna be a bitch to take down."

We head into a hallway with a door at each end leading to rooms with cores powering the AI. We split up two and two. I go with Kaiden to the room on the left side while Shepard and Ashley went to the room on the right. We find a bunch of power junctions that power the AI. Me and Kaiden shoot them up. They explode, but a malfunction occurs. There are barriers at behind each. Luckily our regular weapons can destroy them. We shoot through the first one we see and meet up with Shepard and Ashley.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

"Yeah, there are barriers blocking our path, but we can shoot them up. Lets head to the next building." Shepard said.

We head out onto the moon's surface and head towards the building to the north. We head in to engage the drones. This time there were several rocket drones. Shit. Just my luck. Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley take cover while I fire at the rocket drones. I thought to myself "_I'm not getting hit by another rocket. Never again."_ I destroy two of them. There were two more rocket drones along with the dozen other drones in the room. I use overkill and mow those rustbuckets down. I kept firing as the drones exploded. I wouldn't stand down for those things. I finish all of them off in minutes. I turn to see my team starring at me in awe.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side, Lieutenant." Ashley said.

"Jeez, you torn them up good." Kaiden said.

"Well I wasn't going to let them overrun us. I'm pretty Hackett doesn't want to send another team to look for our sorry asses." I said with a smirk on my face.

"Lets go take care of those power junctions." Shepard said as he looked at the destruction I brought upon the drones.

We did the same thing as last time. Split up and shoot up the power junctions. We destroy the junctions and head to the last building to the east.

"Alright. This is the last building. After this, we'll report to Admiral that the AI is destroyed." Shepard said.

"Okay. Lets see if we can make it through." I said.

We head in to find a dozen regular drones and a dozen rocket drones. Great. We take cover behind a bunch of metal crates as the drones fire at us. I pop out from my cover and take down a couple drones. Then Ashley and Kaiden pop out and take down four more drones. My heart was beating like crazy as the rocket drones fired rockets at us the exploded near us, but none of us were scathed. Shepard, and Kaiden pop out using grenades to take down half a dozen drones. Then they fire at several others before taking cover. I toss a grenade to destroy a couple of drones before using overkill. I begin to mow down the drones. They go down one by one.

"Alex! Look out!" Shepard shouted.

Then a rocket drone fires a rocket and it explodes in front of me. I was knocked unconscious by the blast. Not again. Four times now. I wake up in the med-bay several hours later. My vision is a blur upon waking up. Once my vision clears, I see Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley standing next to my bed.

"You okay, Lieutenant?" Ashley asked.

"Kind of." I replied "Let me guess. I got hit by a rocket again?"

"Yeah, we had to drag you back to the ship again." Kaiden said.

"Thanks again." I said.

"What were you thinking? You tried to mow down a bunch of rocket drones while standing in the open." Shepard said.

"Well I wasn't going to hit them while sitting cover." I replied.

"You're crazy and reckless, but at least the mission was a success." Ashley said.

"We told Admiral Hackett. He's sending a tech crew to salvage the tech from the training complex." Shepard said "Will he be good to go, Doctor Chakwas?"

"Yes. This time the blast didn't do too much damage. You just have some scarring on your abdominal section." Doctor Chakwas said.

"Good." I said as I sat up "I'll be training down in engineering."

I head down to engineering and started to practice a kada called Short 3. My movements have great form and flow through easily. I go behind the crates near the mako to get some of my martial arts weapons. I notice that my eskrima sticks were missing.

"Where the hell did I put them?" I asked myself as I looked for it.

"Looking for these?" a voice said to me.

Turn to see that it was Tali. And she was holding my eskrima sticks.

"Oh, Tali. I didn't know that was you." I said.

"No worries." She said as she approached me.

She puts my eskrima sticks aside and looks at me in a kinky way "I tried some of the immunoboosters."

"Tali, I know what you're thinking. It's still too soon." I said.

She ignores my comment and proceeds to remove her mask. Her face was a whitish purple color, her eyes were milky white, and her hair was black.

"Tali I..." my sentence was cut off when Tali started to kiss me. Her moist tongue touches mine. Instead of continuing my protest, I pull her closer as we kiss. We embraced each other as we kissed. We then separate our lips.

"Wow." I simply said as looked at her beautiful face.

"What did you think?" Tali asked with a simle on her face.

"Well I think that was a pretty good start." I said.

"Alex, could you come up here for a minute." Shepard said over the intercom.

"Alright." I replied "What could he need me for at this time?"

"You best get up there and find out." Tali said as we release our embrace.

I head up to the CIC wondering what Shepard wants.

"Hey, John." I said.

"Hey, Alex. I need to tell you something. You might not like it." Shepard said.

"What is it?" I asked as my mood changed.

"Admiral Kahoku went missing. They don't know where he is or who took him." Shepard said.

"Dammit! It was goddamn Cerberus! They were hunting him down! Why do you think he took off after we told him about the missing recon team! He knew that they were on his tail!" I yell in anger.

"I know that you were close to him. Luckily he gave us the coordinates to their facilities on Binthu." Shepard said.

"Well come on! Lets blow them up!" I yell.

"No! You need rest." Shepard said.

"But..." I said.

"No buts. I need everyone well rested for tomorrow. Go on. Get some rest." Shepard said.

I hang my head in sadness.

"Alex, look at me." I lift my head to see Shepard "We'll find him. Now go get some sleep."

I head to my sleeping pod. I get in and fall into a deep sleep.

_2178. I sit with my unit on the ship. We await to assault the main compound where the batarian pirates are held up on Torfan._

_"Alright men were hitting the main compound. I want you off this damn ship when we land." Admiral Lynch said._

_"Yes sir." we responded._

_When the ship lands we head into enemy fire._

_"Those men are going to get slaughtered! Pull them back onto the ship!" Major Kyle yelled._

_"Those men are going to take down those pirates at any cost!" Admiral Lynch snapped back._

_We try to head back, but the ship leaves. We spread as enemy fire rains upon us. I freeze at the sight of my friends getting torn apart. Pieces of hamburger fly across my field of vision. Soon my friend Jimmy Crout pulls me towards some cover._

_"Dammit, Alex! Keep your head down!" Jimmy said._

_"What are we going to do? They'll tear us apart!" I yell._

_"Move up!" a voice yells. It was Major Kyle. He decided to join us for the mission._

_We push on towards the compound. I fire my assault rifle at batarian slavers. They fall to the ground as we move in._

_"They're loading up their cannons!" Jimmy yells._

_The cannons fire and plasma shells begin to explode near us. We keep moving to take our objective. Just then one round blows Jimmy to pieces. His blood was splattered on my armor. I froze at the sight._

_"Nooooooo! Jimmy! Goddamn you bastards!" I shout in anger._

_"Come on, Alex! We have to keep moving!" Major Kyle said._

_We reached the compound and I see that several of my friends made it. Samuel, Donny, Alphonse, and Ricky._

_"Alright. Lets head in." Major Kyle said._

_We head in to seee that the batarians were waiting for us._

_"Holy shit!" Alphonse yelled._

_"Open fire on those bastards!" Donny yelled._

_We engage the batarians in an intense firefight. We continueously fire our rifle until they overheated. We had to resort to hand to hand combat. I charge at one batarian hitting him with a right hook punch. He recovers and then tackles me to the ground. He starts to choke me. I try to get his hands away from my throat, but nothing worked. Then I smack both side of his head. He gets off of me to recover. I then get him in a triangle choke. I hold him there longer than I usually would. I release him after a minute to find out that I killed him. I choked him to death like he tried to do earlier. I then find another batarian and hit him with a roundhouse kick. He falls to the floor. I notice another batarian trying to fix his pistol. I deliver a flying side kick to his head. He goes down, but the one I knock down a moment ago gets me in a choke. I pull his arm away from my neck and elbowed him in the face. I then throw a series of punches before he falls to the floor. I then proceed to punch him on the floor. I killed him by bashing his head with my fists. His blood stained my hands. It was blood that could by washed of physically, but not mentally. We rush through a hallway shooting and beating men to death as the blood splatters everywhere. I then see one batarian pin Alphonse to the ground. The batarian then whipped out his pistol. I rush over to help, but it was too late. The batarian shot Alphonse in the face and I proceed to deliver some kicks. He falls to the ground and I deliver an axe kick to his skull. I killed another person with my martial arts. The shame and guilt began to build up more and more._

_"Come on, Alex! We gotta take this place!" Samuel said._

_"Lets go, man!" Ricky said as fired at some batarians._

_We head up into a bigger room to see more batarians. One batarian launches a rocket at me and it explodes in front of me. I fall to the floor. I was still conscious long enough to see my friends kill a lot of batarians. I then see a couple pieces of shrapnel lodged in my chest. I then faint at the sight._

I then wake up to see that Tali and Shepard got me out of my sleeping pod.

"Jeez, Alex. Are you okay?" Shepard asked.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You were violently shaking around in your sleeping pod again. You were more shaky than the last time." Tali said.

"I was dreaming about Torfan. The horrible deaths of my friends, the shells bursting near me, and having to kill men with my bare hands. I can't get it out of my head. I can't find peace in that. I killed men in brutal ways. I'll never be able to find forgiveness for that." I said.

"We all have seen a brand of heel, Alex. You said to Talitha that your past doesn't have to control you. Don't let the same thing happen to you." Shepard said.

"That was different. That was a memory of a massacre that destroyed our childhood. Plus she had Stockholm Syndrome. I have no empathy for those slavers. They got what they deserved on Elysium and Torfan." I said in anger.

"You've got a point there. But we need you, Alex. We need you for the mission. Don't let past memories swallow you up. Fight it." Shepard said.

"He's right. You need to fight it. we can't have freezing up in the middle of the mission." Tali said.

"Alright." I simply said as I got up from the floor.

"We'll be dropping on Binthu in several hours. Clear your mind and meet me, Tali, and Garrus near the mako." Shepard said.

I stood up straight and said "Alright. I'll clear my head. I promise not to freeze up during the mission."

I head down to engineering to clear my mind. I sit on a crate thinking about the upcoming mission. I was wondering whether Admiral Kahoku was alright. He was my mentor. He taught me a lot of things my father didn't get to teach me. I looked up to him in my earlier days in the Alliance. Several hours went by as I continuously think about my earlier days. I get my gear and wait by the mako. Tali arrives before Shepard and Garrus.

"Hey." Tali said.

"Hey, Tali." I said smiling at her.

"How are you holding up?" Tali asked.

"I'm hanging in there. I'm just hoping that Admiral Kahoku is okay." I said.

"What's your connection to him?" Tali asked.

"He was my mentor in the Alliance. While Grandmaster Midori taught me many things about martial arts, Admiral Kahoku taught me many things about the Alliance. He taught me things my father didn't. My father died before he could teach me more about military life." I said.

"How could Cerberus have found him?" Tali asked.

"I'm wondering that myself. He's the toughest man I know next to Admiral Hackett. Then again Cerberus is a black ops group. They must know some tricks to kidnap a tough Alliance Admiral." I said.

"We'll get them." Tali said.

"I hope we take out their bases." I said.

I the look into Tali's eyes through her visor.

"Do you think the others know about us?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" Tali asked.

"I suppose not." I said looking around the room.

Then Shepard and Garrus come walking up to us.

"Good. You're here. Lets get rolling." Shepard said.

We get into the mako. Shepard drives while I operate the turret. Tali and Garrus sit in the back. We drop onto Binthu. We drive across the terrain to find the research facilities. We find one of them after five minutes of driving. There were two rocket turrets firing at us.

"Shit! Move this thing, Shepard!" I yell as the rockets fly by us.

I start to fire the machinegun at the turrets. I destroy them both in seconds. We get out of the mako to head into the facility. We had our helmets on because there was a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We encounter something we never expected to encounter again. Thorian shot them up and they go down.

"What the hell?" Shepard asked in confusion.

"Thorian creepers." I said.

"I thought we got rid of all of them back on Feros." Garrus said.

"Cerberus must've captured some and brought them here." Tali said.

"Lets head in there and find out." I said.

We head into the facility and find a room with lots of crates. The whole room looked like a maze. I pull out my shotgun for close encounters with Cerberus soldiers. We engage several Cerberus soldiers. We spread out to engage them. I moved through the maze of crates with my shotgun raised. I find two men and blast them away in seconds. I hear the shots to my left and rush around the crates to find Tali blasting away three men. She then points her shotgun at me thinking I was a Cerberus soldier.

"Tali, wait! It's me!" I yelled as I look at her shotgun.

"Keelah, Alex! I almost shot you!" Tali yelled.

"Sorry. I just came to see if you were alright." I said.

Just then she spots a Cerberus scientist aiming a pistol at me.

"Alex, hit the deck!" Tali yelled.

I throw myself twoards the floor and Tali blasts the scientist away.

"Thanks. Now you've saved my life." I said.

"Alex, we gotta keep movig." Garrus said as he walked near us.

We enter a room to see a barrier keeping several Thorian creepers in captivity. We then see some Cerberus soldiers and scientists armed and ready to kill us. We spread out again. I shoot down two scientists and I fire at three soldiers. I take down two of them before the third one is killed by Garrus. I gave him a simple nod of thanks and got back to the firefight. I then see a soldier pointing his rifle at me. I take him down in a split second. I then turn off the barrier and I start to shoot the Thorian creepers. They go down like they did on Feros.

"What the hell were they doing with these creepers?" Garrus asked.

Tali was reading a messega on a Cerberus terminal "Admiral Kahoku was right. They were conducting crazy experiments. They were trying to enslave Thorian creepers."

"Dammit. Just when we thought that got rid of them on Feros, Cerberus has to capture some of them and make them into their slaves." I said.

"Come on. We have two more facilities to clear out." Shepard said.

We head out to the mako. We get back inside in the same seats. We head towards the second facility to the north. Again we destroyed the rocket turrets nd engaged several creepers. We got out of the mako and head into the compound. This time the first room we come across was pretty spacious. There were no Cerberus soldiers in the room which made it easy for us to get by. The next room had the same setup as the one in the other facility except in the area inside the barrier were rachni. We engage the soldiers and scientists. I rush at them while firing my shotgun. They fall in seconds from my incoming rounds. Tali takes down three scientists who thought they could take us. Shepard and Garrus shoot down five more soldiers. The firefight ended within a minute. Tali then turns off the barrier. Me and Shepard use overkill with our assault rifles to kill the rachni. They came at us as we fired. They went down one by one. They were dead in seconds.

"I'm guessing they were enslaving rachni too?" Shepard asked.

"These Cerberus scientists are fucking crazy. They probably think they can enslave any goddamn thing in the galaxy." I said.

"I can see why Kahoku had concerns about Cerberus." Garrus said as he observed the dead rachni.

"Keelah. Who knows what could've happened if they succeeded?" Tali asked thinking about what could happen if Cerberus could control these beasts.

We head back out to the mako to go clear the the last facility. We drive up engaging the rockets. I destroyed them within seconds with the machinegun. For some reason there were no Thorian creepers waiting for us. We got out of the mako and went into the last facility. We find a room with a dozen armed to the teeth Cerberus soldiers.

"Son of a bitch!" I yelled upon seeing the dozen men ready to kill us.

"Spread out!" Shepard yelled.

We spread out as the soldiers began to fire. I use carnage with my shotgun to blow away two of them. They go flying like it was an action movie. Tali does the same thing on her end. Garrus fires at several men before he took cover behind some crates. Shepard took cover behind a steel pillar as he blindly fires at the soldiers. Several more men go down from our rounds. I then toss a grenade at them. Four men were blown to bits by the grenade. The last soldier retreats into the next room. We head into the room to find the soldier and only three scientists ready to fight us. I blow away the soldier while Garrus kills two of the scientists. Shepard tags the last one. Again we turn off the barrier in the room. This time there were creepers and rachni. Tali and I used carnage to blow them away. We send the creepers flying. Shepard and Garrus use overkill to take the rachni. Tali and I fire our shotguns at the rachni. The rachni are dead instantly. We then spot a body in the containment area. I was then shocked to see that it was Admiral Kahoku laying on the floor.

"No. No. I can't be." I told myself before I break down.

I fall to my knee and begin to cry. My Alliance mentor was laying dead before me and I couldn't save him.

"Those bastards! I gonna fucking kill them all!" I yelled in sorrow and anger.

"Alex..." Shepard said.

"You hear me? They're gonna fucking die like a bunch of goddamn animals!" I yelled as the tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Alex. I know the two of you were close. We'll get them. I promise." Shepard said with determination.

"Maybe he left something for us." I said wiping away the tears.

I find a set of coordinates to a Cerberus base on Nepheron.

"He knew that we would find him. That's why he keep those coordinates with him." Shepard said.

"He was the greatest serviceman I've ever known." I said as I was still crying over his death.

I stand up and start to have flashbacks to when Admiral Kahoku took me under his wing. Memories of my training, the Blitz, and the sniper mission. All of those flowed through my mind. I gave his body a salute before turning to the others.

"Lets go." I said.

We then leave for the Normandy. I just saw the toughest man I've ever known lying dead before my eyes. I still miss him to this day. This is to you, Admiral Kahoku. May you rest in peace.


	10. Chapter 10

**Alex is filled with sorrow and anger over the death of his Alliance mentor Admiral Kahoku. Tali begins to worry if he'll be able to pull through the mission. Meanwhile Shepard is planning a mission to attack the Cerberus facility on Nepheron.  
**

I sit on a crate in the cargo bay. I was sad that my mentor was dead and angry that Cerberus killed him. My mind was replaying memories of my time with Admiral Kahoku. From when we first met to the Blitz. I became a spectacle in the Alliance, because of him. Tali then comes by to check up on me.

"Alex?" Tali asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"I came by to check up on you." Tali said as she climbed onto the crate to sit next to me.

"I was just thinking about Admiral Kahoku. All of the things he taught me, the battles we fought, and becoming spectacles in the Alliance." I said with sorrow.

"I'm worried." Tali said.

"Don't worry. We'll get Cerberus for this." I said.

"No. I'm worried about you." Tali said.

I turn my head towards her and look at her.

"You've been through a lot. I'm worried that the mission might break you. That it might destroy you and that will never be the same again." Tali said.

"Tali..." I said.

"Alex. You're pushing yourself too hard. I don't want you die, but I don't want you to go crazy either." Tali said.

I take in what she said. I start to hold her hand "I didn't know that I was making you worry. I...I'm sorry."

She then removes her visor and we start to kiss. Her tongue touches mine again. We then separate our lips.

"You know you're the only person I can count on to help me pull through rough times?" I asked.

She puts her visor back on and said "I hope we can get through this mission without getting killed."

"We'll be fine. I promise." I said with a reassuring smile.

Soon Shepard and Garrus come by.

"Guys. We're nearing Nepheron." Garrus said.

"Get your gear and meet us by the mako." Shepard said.

We gave him a simple nod before getting our gear. I find myself operating the turret again while Shepard drives. We drive across the rocky terrain of Nepheron before we find the entrance to the underground base. There were two snipers and four rocket soldiers defending it. I mow down the rocket soldiers first before zeroing in on the snipers. I take down the snipers in seconds. We get out and enter the underground base. We enter a large room to find five Cerberus commandos and three snipers. I immediately take down one of the snipers. We then spread out to draw their fire in different directions. I take cover behind a crate next to Tali. Shepard and Garrus use overkill to take down the commandos.

"Tali, lets take out the snipers." I said to her.

We pop up and take out the snipers before focusing on the commandos. The commandos are finally dead. We head down a hallway only to encounter more commandos. There were six commandos putting heavy fire on us. I could tell that this is they're last stand. I charge ahead of the others and start to use overkill. I let out a loud war cry as I fired my assault rifle. In the moment I had a flashback of the Blitz. I did the same thing in the field when the batarians cam. I then get into reality. The rounds tore into the flesh of the commandos as I raged through the hallway.

"Die you bastards!" I shout in anger.

Five of the commandos were dead by the time I reached the end of the hallway. The last one was mortally wounded. He tries to shoot me, but blow some rounds through his skull at close range. His blood, his brains, and pieces of his skull fly into my face. I then felt a calming effect after the killing. I then lean against the wall behind me and slide down into a sitting position on the floor.

"Alex, are you okay?" Shepard said.

"Yeah." I simply replied.

"Hey. I found a terminal." Garrus said from another room. "It's got some harsh data on Cerberus. I'm gonna make a copy of this and then wipe out the original."

Tali walks over to me "I see that you were right. We made it through this mission."

"It wasn't that challenging. I guess we really crippled Cerberus after we assaulted their research facilities. They didn't have many guys defending this placeAdmiral Kahoku would be proud. Then again he was always proud of me." I said.

"I'm sure he would be." Tali said.

Then Shepard and Garrus come walking by.

"We got the data." Shepard said.

"Lets see to it that this gets in the right hands." Garrus said holding the OSD.

We head back to the Normandy. I stand in the cockpit looking out at space. I see a bunch of stars form a constellation of Admiral Kahoku. In my head I hear his voice.

"Good job, Alex." he said.

"Thank you, Admiral Kahoku." I said to myself.

"Alex, what are you looking at?" Joker asked.

"Nothing." I simply said "I'm gonna be down in engineering."

"Whatever you say." Joker said.

I go to Shepard's cabin first. Admiral Kahoku's death, Me and Shepard helping Lieutenant Zabaleta, and saving Talitha got me thinking. I've done good things for people. I've fought off inner demons of Mindoir, but I've never gone back to Mindoir to pay my respects. I enter the cabin.

"Hey, John." I said getting his attention.

"Hey, Alex. What's up?" Shepard said.

"All of these things we've been doing lately have got me thinking." I said.

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked.

"I've fought off my inner demons from Mindoir. I think it's time for me to take trip to Mindoir and pay my respects." I said.

"I understand now. You want to pay your respects before death. I'll have Joker set a course for Mindoir." Shepard said.

"Thanks, John." I said before heading down to engineering.

We arrive at Mindoir to see colonists and tourists there. None of these colonists were around during the massacre. They must have came in after the colony was rebuilt by the Alliance.

"What are we doing here?" Liara said.

"I want to pay my respects to my family and friends." I said.

"Understood." Liara said.

I step off the ship at the docking port with Tali next to me. We hold hands as we walked. I see that huts I used to live in were even larger now. The buildings are larger too. Everything has changed since the massacre. I see many tourists and colonists point and look at me in awe.

"That's Alex Kampfer. He's the survivor of the massacre." one tourist said.

"He's my idol." one colonist said.

We walk to the cemetery to find the graves of my friends and family. I find the graves of my mom and dad. I first pay my respects to my mother.

"Hi, mom. I know that you can hear me from the afterlife. I wanted say that I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything to save you. I wasn't strong enough. I wanted to say that were a great mother. And I'll never forget the things you've done for me. Grandmaster Midori has done a good job at raising me. I'm happy to know that you are watching over my shoulders at every waking moment. Rest in peace." I said.

I then turn to my father's grave "Hey, dad. I want you to know that I'm proud at the fact that you were my dad. You taught me many things about the military. The things you didn't get to teach me were taught to me by Admiral Kahoku. He died recently, but we avenged his death. I want you to know that I'm proud to be an Alliance marine like you were. I know I've done horrible things at war. I know that I didn't come back to Mindoir after it was rebuilt. Please find it in your spirit to forgive me. I have had nightmares about what happened to you, mom, and my friends. I stopped a girl from committing suicide who lived here. She was a slave and when the Alliance rescued her, she took a pistol and threatened to kill herself. I told her about what I went through. I talked her out of suicide. Since then I haven't had any nightmares about that massacre. Rest in peace." I said.

"Alex, is that you?" a voice said to me.

I turn to look and see a man who is the same age as me.

"It's me, Alex. Your best friend." he said.

"Alex?" I asked.

We then hugged each other like we were brothers.

"Oh my god. I thought you were dead after these years." I said as I began to cry.

"I know. I was saved by an Alliance patrol five years ago. I've been trying to find you." Alex said.

"I came here to pay my respects to my parents and the others." I said as we separated.

"Me too." Alex said. "I heard some amazing stories about you. I heard about what you did during the Skyllian Blitz, and on Torfan. And I heard that you talked a former slave out of suicide. I'm happy for you." Alex said.

"I'm happy for you too. I'm glad the Alliance saved you from those monsters." I said wiping away my tears.

"I also heard that you and Commander Shepard were made the first human spectres." Alex said.

"That news got around pretty quickly." I said "How's your life been since you know?"

"It's been hell with the slavers. They did horrible things to me. I'm sure that former slave told you everything."

"Yeah, she did." I said.

"It's been difficult trying to live a regular life. Everyday I keep thinking that a slaver is gonna be outside my house with the wires." Alex said.

"Everyone has a hard time after experiencing that, but you can change that." I said.

"I know. I've been seeing a psychiatrist. He's been helping me readjust myself to my normal life." Alex said.

"I miss the younger days. I miss playing football on the plateau." I said.

"You want to go to the plateau?" Alex asked.

"Sure." I said "Come on, Tali. We'll show you the plateau."

"By the way. Who is this?" Alex asked.

"This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." I said.

"Good to meet you, Alex." Tali said.

"Good to meet you." Alex said as we walked.

We reach the plateau. The plateau is the only part of Mindoir that wasn't devestated. The only thing missing was our friends.

"This is it, Tali. Me and Alex have great memories about this place." I said.

"We would always play football out here. Alex always played quarterback." Alex said.

"Hey, I played offense a couple times." I said.

"That you did. I was always playing defense." Alex said.

"How often would you guys play?" Tali asked.

"Six times a week." Alex said.

"Keelah, you must've loved it." Tali said.

"We certainly did. Best time of our lives. I also had fun with Alex watching the first Blasto movie." Alex said.

"God. That was the worst action movie I've ever seen. We laughed through the entire film, because we couldn't take it seriously." I said.

"Your right. But Stars of Fury was worse. Blasto was so bad that it was good. Stars of Fury was so bad that it was bad. Stars of Fury is the shittiest action flick in the galaxy." Alex said.

"Well you've got a point there..." I was then interrupted by Shepard over my communicator.

"Alex." Shepard said.

"Yeah?" I said.

"The council has an urgent message. I need you back on the ship." Shepard said.

"Alright." I said. "Sorry, Alex. I have to go. We're on an urgent mission."

"I understand. It was good to see, old buddy." Alex said as hugged again like brothers.

"I'll try to visit you after the mission, Alex. Goodbye." I said.

"Bye." Alex said as we parted ways.

Back on the ship, Me and Shepard were in the comm room talking to the council.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer, we have some news pertaining to your mission." the asari councilor said.

"We have STG units in the Traverse. We have one unit on Virmire that sent us an urgent message. They were investigating a research facility owned by Saren. It was mostly static, but it was sent on an emergency broadcast signal. We thought since you're investigating Saren, you might want to check it out." the salarian councilor said.

"We'll check it out." Shepard said.

"Don't worry. We'll find your missing team." I said.

"Good luck, you two." the asari councilor said.

"Okay. Lets hope that the STG team is still alive." I said.

"Yeah, lets hope." Shepard said.

"Alright. I'll get my gear." I said.

Down in engineering I wait. I sit near the mako with my gear waiting for the upcoming mission. Soon Tali comes by to see me.

"Hey, I heard that we're going to Virmire." Tali said.

"Yeah, we're going there to find an STG team that sent a distress signal." I said. "I just hope we're not walking into another trap."

"I'm hoping that we live through this one. I don't want to lose you nor do I want you to lose me." Tali said.

"Tali, it's gonna be fine. We'll make it through. Look at all of the things we went through together. I'm sure we'll make it." I said.

"I just want more time." Tali said sadly.

"I know. I do too." I said putting my arm over her shoulder.

Then Shepard and Garrus come by.

"Well we're all here. Let get in." Shepard said.

This time Garrus is driving while I'm on the turret. We drop onto Virmire. Joker then alerts us that there are anti-aircraft guns on the base. Shepard told him to stay out of range until they're offline. I guess we won't have air support for a bit. We drive across a wide, and shallow river. We encounter a geth armature. The armature fires and Garrus hits the thrusters. We hit the ground and I start to fire rockets at it. It explodes, sending pieces of metal flying everywhere. We head into a opening where there were geth recon drones and rocket troopers waiting for us. We dodge the incoming rockets as I launch some of our own. Three of the rocket troopers are blown up while the rocket drones are still intact. I fire the machine gun at the drones. I destroy two of them. Then Garrus starts to backup.

"Shit! Shiiiiiittt!" Garrus shouted as he saw a rocket heading towards us.

The rocket hits us. The explosion shook us back and forth.

"Jesus! Pull us back, Garrus!" I yelled.

"Alright! Cover us!" Garrus yelled.

We drive back to the coastal area as I fired at the drones. The drones follow us as we retreat. I destroy them with the machine gun. We repair the mako with omni-gel.

"Come on. We gotta get this thing rolling again." I said.

"I'm working on it." Shepard said "There we go."

We drive off again to see that the remaining rocket troopers retreated. We drive on to see that the four rocket troopers retreated to an area with two armatures. I fire rockets at the armature on our left. It explodes sending flying everywhere. One of the rocket troopers was killed by a large pieces of shrapnel. I then focus on the other armature. I blow that one up before mowing down the rocket troopers. We then drive on to see the first of three gatehouses. We get out of the mako to assault the gatehouse. We mow down some geth troopers before heading up the stairs. We encounter a geth destroyer, a sniper, and a goddamn juggernaut. I use overkill to mow down the juggernaut. Garrus tags the sniper while Shepard and Tali kill the destroyer. We head into a room with one computer that unlocks the gate. We unlock the gate and head back to the mako. We drive through the opening the gate was blocking. Behind the gate we encountered an armature, and a colossus. I fire the machine gun to bring down the colossus's shields. We constantly circle around it until its shields are down. Then I launch some rockets at it. It explodes sending huge pieces of shrapnel everywhere. Then I focus on the armature. It exploded in a minute after firing the machine gun at it. We head into a rocky area where geth destroyers, and geth rocket troopers were waiting for us.

"Shit! Garrus get this thing moving!" I yelled upon seeing the horde of geth.

"On it!" Garrus said as he began drive around the area.

I mow the rocket troopers first to ensure they don't hit the mako. I then focus on the destroyers. There were five of them itching to kill us. I fire rocket that sends two of them flying. The other three began to spread out as I fired at them. I tag one of them, but the other two found good cover. One pops and I fill it with holes. The last destroyer pops out and I blow it to pieces with a rocket. We then drive on to find a second gatehouse. Once again, we get out of the mako to assault the gatehouse. This time there two snipers, two juggernauts, a destroyer, a rocket trooper, and a striker. I take down the rocket trooper first. It goes down and accidentally fires a rocket. The rocket nearly hits the mako, but instead it hits the ground near the mako. Shepard fires at the destroyer while Garrus tags the snipers. I then see Tali by my side.

"While Shepard and Garrus suppress them, we'll hit 'em on their blind side." I said to her.

"I'll follow your lead." Tali said.

"Shepard, Garrus keep 'em suppressed!" I yell to them.

"Got it!" Garrus yelled back.

Tali and I head up the stairs to flank the geth. I pull out my shotgun and sneak behind the two juggernauts. Tali fall in behind me.

"Alright. We'll use carnage on them on three. One. Two. Three." I said before we popped up blasting away the two juggernauts.

Then we take out the striker. It falls to the grounds like ragdoll. I then head to the room with the computer that opens the gate. We then get back into the mako and drive off. We encounter a shit situation within a minute. We encounter two colossus's. This was going to be tough fight. We circle around one of them as I fired the machine gun at it. The other colossus launches a plasma blast at us. Garrus hits the thrusters to dodge it. We land and I then continue to fire. I then start to fire the machine gun and rocket launcher at the same time. We continue to circle and bounce as the colossus's fire at us. I feel my heart pounding more than ever. I fire one rocket that hits one colossus in its flashlight head. The head explodes and the giant metal beast falls. Then I focus my attention to the other colossus. I fire the machine gun some more to bring down its shields. Then I launch a rocket at it causing it to explode. The big pieces of flying shrapnel nearly hit the mako. We got off lucky considering the fact that we were close to the damn thing.

"God. Finally." I said in relief.

"Lets head on. That STG team has to be around here somewhere." Shepard said.

We drive on to find the third and last guardhouse. We get out again to assault it. There wasn't much resistance just a couple of snipers and a destroyer. I immediately tag the two snipers while the others mow down the destroyer. Tali then uses carnage on it, blowing it away. We head up towards the room with the gate control computer. We find not only the computer for the gates, but also the anti-aircraft control computer.

"Tali, get to work on shutting those guns down." Shepard said.

"Right." Tali said as she went to shut down the guns.

"Garrus, open the gate." Shepard said.

"Okay." Garrus replied as he went to the gate computer.

"The AA guns are offline." Tali said.

"Good." Shepard said.

"Joker, the guns are down. You can locate the STG team with no worries." I said over the communicator.

"Aye aye, Lieutenant. we have the coordinates of their distress signal. Heading there now." Joker said.

"Roger that." I said. "Come on. Lets head out."

"Gate's open." Garrus said.

We get back in the mako and head out. Joker did find the STG team within a minute.

"Commander, we found the STG team. Looks like we're grounded for now. The salarian captain will explain more when you get here." Joker said.

"Understood, Joker." Shepard said.

"Great." I said in an irritated way.

We find the Normandy near a camp the STG set up. We get out of the mako to speak with the salarian captain.

"What do you mean were grounded?" Kaiden asked.

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to wait until the Council sends in the reinforcements we requested." the salarian captain said.

"We are the reinforcements." Kaiden said.

"What? I said specifically to send in a fleet." the salarian captain said.

"Your message was mostly static. The Council sent us to investigate. Who are you?" I asked.

"Captain Kirrahe, 3rd Infiltration Regiment, STG. And we made it clear that we needed reinforcements. I lost half of my men investigating this place." the salarian captain said.

"Sorry, but reinforcements aren't coming." Shepard said.

"Why were you investigating this place?" I asked.

"We were sent here to find out what the scientists were doing. They were hired by Saren to breed an army of krogan." Kirrahe said.

"What? How is that possible?" Wrex asked.

"Apparently Saren found a cure for the genophage." Kirrahe said.

"What is that?" Shepard asked.

"It was the solution to the krogan problem." Wrex said.

"It's the virus that makes chances for a krogan pregnancy one in a thousand to sterilize the krogan population." I said.

"More of your brilliant knowledge?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah." I simply replied.

"This base and its secrets have to be destroyed." Kirrahe said.

"I don't think so. This cure could save my people." Wrex said.

"If this cure leaves this facility, the krogan will become unstoppable. We can't make the same mistake again." Kirrahe said.

Then Wrex walks up to Kirrahe and points to him saying "We are not a mistake." Then he storms off.

"Is he going to be a problem? We have enough problems to deal with." Kirrahe said.

"I'll talk to him." Shepard said.

"Good. I need some time to prepare my men." Kirrahe said.

"Take all the time you need, Captain." Shepard said.

"Thank you, Commander." Kirrahe said as he walked off.

"I'm worried about, Wrex. I think he's gonna snap." Ashley said.

"Don't worry. We'll talk to him." Shepard said while looking at me.

"Wait. You mean you and I?" I asked.

"Yeah. You're good at talking to people. Hell, you talked down a suicidal girl." Shepard said.

"I guess you're right about that." I said.

"I'll be ready if he does anything." Ashley said as she pulled out her pistol.

"That won't be necessary, Gunnery Chief. But it's good to have someone ready." Shepard said.

Then I see Wrex shooting at the ocean with his shotgun in anger and said "Lets go before he start pointing that shotgun at us."

We walk towards Wrex to see in distress.

"This isn't right, Shepard. If there's a cure for the genophage, we can't destroy it." Wrex said.

"Calm down, Wrex. We both know that Saren is the real enemy here." I said.

"Really? Saren created a cure for my people, you want to destroy it. Help me out here, you two. The lines between friend and foe are getting a little blurry." Wrex said.

"It's not a cure! It's a weapon! If Saren is allowed to use it, none of use will reap the benefits." Shepard said.

"That's a chance we should be willing to take. This is the fate of my entire people we're talking about. This base can't be destroyed. I won't allow it. If you can't give me a better reason then I'm finished with you two." Wrex said as he points his shotgun at us.

Shepard pulls out his shotgun on Wrex while I keep my weapons holstered.

I put my hands up "Woah. Wrex, take it easy."

"I can't let you jeopardize the mission." Shepard said.

"So that's it? All of this time and that's all I get from you? How can you not see what this means to the krogan?" Wrex asked angrily.

"These aren't krogan. They're slaves of Saren. Puppets at his disposal." Shepard said.

"Yeah, Saren will just use them like puppets. He toss them away when he's done with them. He betrayed Shiala, the Thorian, and the rachni. I can assume that he will do the same to the krogan." I said still keeping my hands up.

"They're not real krogan. They're tools. Is that what you want for your people, Wrex?" Shepard asked.

Wrex took a moment to think and then said "No, we were tools for the Council once. They thanked us for wiping out the rachni before they released the genophage upon us. I doubt Saren will be as generous."

"You see? You saw what could truly happen if Saren was allowed to use this weapon." I said.

"Alright. I'll follow you. I won't like it, but I trust you two enough to follow." Wrex said before holstered his shotgun.

"Good." I said in relief as I put my hands down.

"I'm gonna go get some supplies from the supply tent. And I'm glad you saw reason, Wrex." Shepard said.

I walk over to another where Tali was waiting.

"Hey, Tali." I said.

"Alex, I can't believe it. You and Shepard talked down Wrex." Tali said in amazement.

"It wasn't easy. He pointed his shotgun at us until he saw reason." I said.

"Keelah!"

"Relax, he'll help us destroy this place. But that's not why I'm here, Tali."

"You wish to talk?"

"Yes. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'll always love you. I just want some more time together like you said on the ship."

"I know we'll make it through, Alex. We've fought geth, rachni, Cerberus operatives, and asari commandos. I'm sure we'll make it through."

"But you were the one that was worried earlier. You said you were afraid of losing me."

"I know. But after that mission on Nepheron, I started to have more confidence in myself and in the crew."

"It just took that one mission to make you believe that we can make it through this whole mission?"

"Yes."

"Tali, I..."

"Alex, I know we can do it. You have to believe in me and yourself."

I take in what she said and began to think of our previous missions. The things I've survived, the types of enemies we've killed, and the impossible tasks that were performed. We took on asari commandos and lived. We cleared out four places that were inhabited with Cerberus operatives. We fought rachni, geth, corrupt police officers, and the Thorian. I realized that she had a point. We survived these missions with dangerous enemies.

"Okay, I think I understand now. But can we kiss one more time before we walk into the storm?" I asked.

Tali then pulls off her visor and we kiss. We kiss for a couple of minutes. We tried to make it count before the assault on the base. We separate our lips and Tali puts her visor back on.

"I love you." Tali said as she was hugging me.

"I love you too." I said.

Then Shepard comes in when we done hugging "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"No, we were just talking." I said.

"Right." Shepard said "Well come over to the command tent. The captain has got a plan worked out."

"Alright." I replied.

Then we head over to the command tent. This was it. We were walking into the storm. A storm that will be harsh on us all.


	11. Chapter 11

**Alex is now preparing for the dangerous mission that lies ahead. Captain Kirrahe has a plan to assault the base. They're walking into a storm that would be harsh on them all.**

"Good. You're here." Kirrahe said to me.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"We're gonna convert our ship's drive core into a twenty kilo-ton bomb and blow the base up with it." Kirrahe explained.

"Drop that thing from up high, then Saren can kiss his turian ass goodbye." Ashley said.

"I'm afraid that the base is too well fortified for that. We'll have to place it in a precise spot." Kirrahe said.

"Where do we plant the nuke?" I asked.

"On those far side of the base. I'll have the nuke placed on the Normandy and have the crew briefed on the detonation process. We will assault the base to destroy the AA guns in that area." Kirrahe said.

"We don't have enough men to assault this base." Kaiden said.

"He's right about that." Shepard said.

"Don't worry. I'm gonna split my men into three teams. I'm gonna ask you to do something hard." Kirrahe said "Could you spare one of your men to accompany me and my men?"

"You'll need someone who know Alliance communication protocols." Shepard said.

Then Kaiden speaks up "I volunteer, Commander."

"Not so fast, LT. Commander Shepard is gonna need you to plant that nuke." Ashley said.

"With all due respect, Gunnery Chief. It's not your place to decide." Kaiden said.

"Why is it that when people say 'with all due respect' they really mean kiss my ass?" Ashley asked in irritation.

Shepard thought hard about who he would send. He wanted to send someone who could lead a team of men without doing anything reckless. "Williams, you're going with the salarians."

"Roger that, Commander." Ashley replied.

"I got an idea." I said.

"What?" Kirrahe asked.

"Me and Garrus could climb up those cliffs and provide sniper cover. We'll move into the base when we both have an opening." I said.

"That might work." Shepard said.

Liara hears the conversation and asks "Wait. If you're going up there, who's taking your place."

I look over at Tali "Tali, you're taking my place in Shepard's squad for this mission."

"What? But I..." Tali didn't know what to say or do at that moment.

"It's alright. Just think of the stuff I've done as second in command in the field. Think of the decisions I've made during a firefight. Use those decisions to help you be a good second in command." I said to her "Okay?"

"O...Okay." Tali said.

I then yell out to Garrus "Yo, Garrus! You and I are are climbing up those cliffs to provide sniper cover!"

"Alright!" Garrus replied.

"We're ready when you are Captain." Shepard said.

"Alright. I need a moment to prepare my men." Kirrahe said as he gathered his men.

"Well, this is it. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone Kaiden. You too, Commander. And especially you, Alex." Ashley said.

"Don't worry. I'll handle the bomb with no trouble." Kaiden said.

"You worry too much, Ash. I'll be fine." I said.

"Yeah. Well it's just..." Ashley stopped herself.

"Something on your mind, Ashley?" Shepard said.

"It feels weird being under somebody else's command." Ashley said.

"You'll get used to it quickly. It's only for this mission. Now lets get ready." Shepard said.

Captain Kirrahe stood in front of his men giving a speech before the dangerous mission that lied ahead. "You all know the mission, and what is at stake. I have come to trust each of you with my life - but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way. Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts. These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are. Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers! Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that we held the line! Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that, we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren; in the battle today, we will hold the line!"

"Wow. That was an awesome speech." I said in amazement.

"We're ready, Commander." Kirrahe said.

"Alright. Wrex, Liara, Tali lets go." Shepard said.

"Alright. Lets go, Garrus." I said.

We climb the cliff with no trouble and take up a good sniping position.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Always." Garrus replied.

Then we hear Captain Kirrahe over the radio "Aeghor, Mannovai, Jaeto. Move! Move!"

"I got a couple of geth snipers in my scope." Garrus said.

"Take 'em down." I ordered.

"Copy that." Garrus said before taking both snipers down quickly.

"I got a juggernaut and rocket trooper coming out on the roof of the base. I'll take the juggernaut, you take the rocket trooper. On three. One. Two. Three." I said

We take down the juggernaut and rocket trooper in a second. We see several snipers and troopers come out on the roof to find their other troopers dead.

"Lets take them out before our position is exposed." I said.

"Lets." Garrus said zeroing in on the troopers.

We take them out quickly. No more geth came out after that for some reason.

"Come on. There should be more coming." Garrus said.

"Maybe they know we're around. They don't our position. They don't want to risk sending anymore of them out into a killzone." I said.

"I guess we got 'em scared. Well then again geth are snythetics, so they don't express fear." Garrus said.

"Well we better hope they stay in there." I said with a chuckle "Come on, lets go help Shepard's team."

"Alright." Garrus replied.

We head across the cliffs heading to the east. After a couple minute we catch sight of Shepard's team.

"There they are." I said. "Looks like they're heading into the back entrance. Lets set up."

"Right." Garrus replied as he began to set up.

"Hmm. It looks like they have a lot of geth guarding the back entrance too. Lets see if we can take 'em out." I said as I surveyed the back entrance with my scope.

"I got a couple of krogan in my sights." Garrus said.

"What? Shit! They're already pressing out krogan troops. Lets take them down." I said.

I put my finger on the trigger as I sight in on the first krogan I spot. I squeeze the trigger. The shot hits the krogan in the head, killing it instantly. Garrus does the same thing to the other krogan before we focused on the geth.

"Garrus, I got a couple of destroyers. We'll take them down on three. One. Two. Three." I said we fired at the destroyers.

Their flashlight head burst as our rounds hit them. They fall as Shepard and his team move in.

"Shepard, it's Kampfer. We took down a couple of krogans and couple of destroyers guarding the back entrance. It should be a little easier to move in." I said over my communicator.

"Good work, Alex. Moving in now." Shepard replied.

Then we hear more chatter from Captain Kirrahe "Jaeto is under heavy fire! Aeghor, give them some covering fire! Mannovai, move up!"

"Lets hope they make it." I said.

Just then Shepard call me over his communicator "Alex, we cleared a path to the back entrance. Come meet us there."

"Copy that." I replied "Come on, Garrus. Lets go meet up with Shepard."

We climb down the cliff to the metal walkway to meet up with Shepard. We head to the back entrance to see him with the team.

"Hey, Shepard. We're ready to move when you are." I said.

"Good. Lets go in now." Shepard said.

We head in to encounter a lot of fucking geth. A lot! There were lots of troopers, several juggernauts, several strikers, sveral snipers, and couple of destroyers. We split up to draw their fire in different directions. I was with Wrex and Liara behind a huge crate. I use overkill to mow down the three strikers that were ziping around everywhere. I tag two instantly before Liara takes out the third. Wrex comes out of the cover using carnage to blow away one of the destroyers. Shepard, Tali, and Garrus take down one of the juggernauts as my group moves to a different position. We move behind a forklift with a crate as the other two juggernauts put heavy fire on us.

"Liara! You and me will wear down their shields! Then Wrex will blow them away!" I yelled over the raging rounds.

"Alright! Lets do it!" Liara yelled.

"Lets tear them apart!" Wrex yelled with a smile.

Me and Laira pop up firing our assault rifle at the juggarnauts. They keep moving towards us as our rounds hit their shields. Then their shield are finally worn down.

"Wrex! Now!" I yelled.

Wrex pops up using carnage to blow away the juggernaut on our left before plugging several shots at the other one. We then move out into the open to take down the troopers. I use overkill again the troopers while uses her biotics to toss a metal crate at them. Wrex enjoys himself as he shots down geth with his shotgun. Before we knew it, we have kill off all of the troopers. Shepard and his team killed off the snipers and the other destroyer.

"Well, that was a doozy." I said.

"I know. Right?" Shepard said. "Come on. Lets keep moving."

We head to a door at the left side of the room leading to a lab. There were several geth destroyers. One was working on a computer. There were also husks in the room along with an angry krogan scientist. I take out my pistol and point it at the destroyer working on the computer. I fire my shot, causing the destroyer to malfunction. Shepard and the other kill the other destroyers.

"What's going on? Where's Saren?" the krogan scientist asked before whipping out a huge assault rifle.

We fire back at the krogan he goes down quickly from our fire. Then the four husks in captivity are automatically released. I rush at them firing my pistol. I get one in a headlock before plugging a round through it's skull. I then deliver a hook kick to face of another. I land a shot in the forehead of another. The other one recovers from my kick, but Shepard shoots it down. Then I pistol whip the last one in the head before doing an over should toss. I shoot it in the head as it laid on the ground. I go back to see that one destroyer still malfunctioning. I start to scan its core for any info. Apparently it had info about the earlier days of the war between the geth and the quarians. I decide to keep the data to give to Tali. I then shoot the destroyer, stopping its malfunction. We head outside onto a metal bridge to find a console.

"Tali, see what you can find on that." Shepard said.

"It's a security console. I can cut the alarms from here, maybe even trigger alarms on the far side of the base. But it may be too much for the salarians." Tali said.

"The salarians have enough to deal with. Just cut the alarms. We can handle any geth inside." I said.

"A wise decision." Garrus said.

"There. Alarms are down." Tali said.

We head in a room to find a bunch of cells with salarians.

"Oh thank goodness! Please let me out." one salarian said from one of the cells.

"Who are you?" Shepard asked the salarian.

"Private Menos Avot, 3rd Infiltration Regiment, STG. I was captured and brought here for experiments." Menos said.

"What did they do to you?" I asked.

"They did experiments on us. I can still hear the whisper. I just want it to stop." Menos said.

"What was the purpose of these experiments?" I asked.

"I didn't know what we were investigating. The incessant whispering on my shortening temper? Who know?" Menos said.

"Something doesn't seem right about him." Tali whispered to me.

"Let him out." Shepard said.

"Yes, thank you. Please make the whispering stop!" Menos yelled. "The whispering won't stoooooooppp!"

Then Menos charges at us in a rage. Shepard and Garrus shot him up before he even touches us.

"What the hell?" Shepard asked.

"Indoctrination." I said "Saren did it to Benezia. Looks like they were trying to indoctrinate the salarian soldiers they captured."

"That's horrible." Tali said.

"Goddess. How could they do such a thing to these men?" Liara said.

"Now we have another reason to destroy this place." I said.

We then hear Kirrahe over our communicators "Jaeto is down! Aeghor, regroup on me! I think Shepard's team made it in!"

"We have to hurry before they're wiped out." I said.

We exit the room to find two geth troopers on a metal bridge. We take them down immediately. We then find a door at the end of the bridge. I opened the door as Shepard and the others move in. We find an asari scientist.

"Wait! Don't shoot!" the scientist screamed.

"Calm down!" I yelled back "Who are you?"

"Rana Thanoptis, neuro-specialist. I've been working here to research the effects of the indoctrination process." Rana said.

"I thought this was a breeding facility. Tell us more about the indoctrination process." I said.

"It's a type of mind control, but it doesn't just affect the captives. It's affecting the staff too. I didn't know the true dangers of indoctrination. My predecessor was my first test subject. I didn't mean for this suffering to happen. Soon enough, Saren will want to poke at my brain too." Rana said.

"What is Saren planning?" Garrus asked.

"I don't know the plan. I do know that he's planning to use the krogan, geth, and indoctrinated soldiers for an attack, but he didn't say where. I know he has something important behind that door. Rana said as she went to unlock the door. "You see? I'm helping."

"I'm gonna blow this place to hell and gone. If you want to live, you better start running." Shepard said.

"What? You can't...but I'll never...ahh!" Rana screamed as she began to run away.

"You enjoyed that." Garrus said.

"I certainly did." Shepard said.

"Come on. Lets head in here to find out what Saren had that was so important." I said.

We head into the room to find a beacon. A Prothean beacon.

"Holy shit! Look!" I yelled.

"Oh my God! It's a beacon. Just like the one on Eden Prime." Shepard said.

"Lets approach it together." I said.

We stood next to each other and began to walk towards the beacon. The beacon starts pulsating and lifts me and Shepard off the ground. We then witness more image to the horrific vision of the Prothean extinction. The images are gruesome and violent. I've never seen such violence in my life. We are then dropped to the floor.

"Are you two alright?" Liara asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Same here." Shepard said.

"Look. Something is appearing on the catwalk above." Tali said.

We head up to see what it was. We see a red hologram of the ship from the video feed from Eden Prime.

"You are not Saren." the hologram said.

"What is this? Some kind of VI interface?" Tali asked.

"Rudimentary creatures of flesh and bone. You touch my mind while fumbling ignorance." the hologram said.

"I don't think this is a VI, Tali." Garrus said.

"There is a realm beyond your existence that you can't comprehend. I am beyond your knowledge. I am Sovereign." the hologram said.

"Oh my God. It's not just a ship that Saren found. It's an actual Reaper." Shepard said.

"Reaper, a lable given by the Protheans to voice their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us was irrelevant. We simply are." Sovereign said.

"But the Protheans vanished fifty-thousand years ago. You couldn't have been there." Tali said.

"Organic life is nothing but a mutation. An accident. Lives measured in years and decades for which you wither and die. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything." Sovereign said.

"We don't stand alone." Shepard said.

"We have a galaxy of races ready to fight you." I added.

"Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken." Sovereign said.

"Cycle? What cycle?" Tali asked.

"The cycle has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and leaving imprints of their glory. They are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They did not build the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They never found them. The legacy." Sovereign said.

"Why would you build something and then leave it behind for someone to find?" Shepard said.

"Your civilization is built on the technology that comes from the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society develops along the pathes we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it. Because we demand it." Sovereign said.

"They're harvesting us. They're letting us advance to the level they need then they wipe us out." Tali said in shock at the truth.

"You're not really alive. You're just a machine. And machines can be broken." Shepard said in anger.

"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This exchange of words is over." Sovereign says before taking off.

The windows behind crash as Sovereign takes off.

"Commander, that ship Sovereign is moving. I don't know what you did, but that thing just pulled a turn that would shred any of our ships in half. You better wrap things up in there fast, because that thing is coming fast and hard." Joker said over his communicator.

"Copy that, Joker. We're done here." Shepard said.

We head out to the far side of the base to see the Normandy offloading Kaiden and our engineers. They were carrying the nuke with them and they set it down.

"Bomb is in position, we're all set.." Kaiden said as he was cut off by Ashley.

"Commander, do you read me?" Ashley asked.

"We hear you. What's your status?" Shepard asked.

"We're under heavy fire! I don't think we can reach the rendevous point in time! We're taking heavy casualties!" Ashley yelled.

"Where are you, Ash?" I asked.

"We're at the AA tower! Forget about us! Just make sure that bomb goes off!" Ashley yelled.

"It's alright, you two. I need time to set this thing up. Go get them and meet me back here." Kaiden said.

"Tali, Wrex, Garrus, Liara we're heading for AA tower!" I yelled to them.

"Lets go." Shepard said.

We split up into two team, but we stick together through most of the fight. I was with Tali and Garrus while Shepard was with Liara and Wrex. We head across a big metal trench that had three krogan, and three geth rocket troopers waiting for us. I use overkill on the first krogan that charges at us. Tali uses carnage on the second krogan while Garrus uses overkill to kill the third. Shepard's team wipe out the three rocket troopers. Within a minute the krogan were dead. We head to the big door on the other side of the trench. We find a catwalk with several geth troopers ready for us, but they were killed in seconds by us. We were halfway towards the AA tower when we spot a geth ship flying towards Kaiden's area.

"Damn, the geth are sending reinforcements." Wrex said upon seeing the ship.

"Heads up, LT. Geth reinforcements are heading your way." Ashley said.

"They're already here! Geth are pouring out all over the bombsite!" Kaiden yelled.

"Can you hold them off?" Shepard asked.

"No! I don't we can survive until you get here! I'm starting the countdown now!" Kaiden yelled.

"What are you doing, Alenko?" Shepard asked.

"Are you fucking crazy?" I asked.

"I just want to make sure this nuke goes off! No matter what!" Kaiden yelled "It's done! Go get Williams and get the hell out of here!"

"Bullshit! Go back and save Alenko!" Ashley yelled.

Shepard had to make a difficult choice of either saving Ash or Kaiden. He thought long and hard about it.

"Shepard, you gotta think fast. If you don't they're both gonna be dead." I said.

Shepard brought his head up and said "Williams, radio Joker. Tell him to meet us at the AA tower."

"Roger that." Ashley said with regret. Regret that Kaiden was going to die for her.

"I'm sorry, Kaiden. I had to make a choice." Shepard said with sadness.

"It's okay, John. I don't regret a thing." Kaiden said.

"It was good to serve along side you, Kaiden." I said.

"Same to you, Alex. Now I'm gonna make sure those metal bastards don't touch the bomb." Kaiden said.

"Go get them." I said.

We head to the AA tower to see Ashley, Captain Kirrahe, and Mannovai team fighting off a lot of geth. We move in to help. The geth rounds fly past us as move. We spread out to drew their fire in different directions like we have done many times before. I tag two geth troopers before taking cover behind a metal wall. Just then Saren appears on a small hovering platform to fight Shepard. They exchange fire, but then focus on the geth. The enemy fire rages past us as we dodge and take cover. I pop out from my cover and take down three more geth. Just then I see a rocket trooper aiming his rocket launcher at Tali. I immediately thought to myself _"Am I going to take another rocket? For Tali. Yes."_

"Tali!" I shouted as I jump to her.

I grab her and shield her from the blast, but I leave me severely wounded. There were five pieces lodged in me. Three were in my back and the other two were lodged in the back of my left thigh.

"Alex!" Tali screams upon seeing my get wounded while saving her.

"It's alright, Tali. I'm gonna be fine." I said softly.

Then Shepard runs to us to tell us something "Saren is retreating. We saved Ash and... gosh what happened to him?"

"He...he shielded me from a rocket blast." Tali said with sorrow.

"Is he gonna alright?" Ashley asked.

"I'll be fine. It's okay." I said as a fainted from my wounds.

I wake up to find myself lying in a bed in the med bay. I look over to see Shepard, Ash, and Tali standing next to my bed.

"Is he gonna be good for the mission, Doctor Chakwas?" Shepard asked.

"He'll have to rest here for a week before he can continue the mission." Doctor Chakwas said.

"Damn. We'll have to wait. But don't worry too much about Saren. We pretty much crippled his effort by destroying that base. Now he has only the geth by side. No indoctrinated soldiers, and no krogan. He's got to be desperate now." Shepard said.

"Did Kaiden defend the bomb?" I asked.

"He did. He died, but at least he took a lot of geth with him. I'll make sure he is recognized for his actions." Shepard said.

"Why did I have to be saved?" Ashley asked "Why was it me that needed saving?"

"Ash, you're important to me. Plus I had to save the salarians too. I'm just happy that Captain Kirrahe and Mannovai team survived the mission on Virmire." Shepard said. "Now come on. Let Alex rest for bit."

"Tali, wait." I said.

Tali came over to me as Shepard and Ash left.

"Yes?" Tali asked.

"I have something for you." I said pulling out an OSD.

"What is that?" Tali said.

"It's an OSD containing some valuable data about the earlier days of the geth. I thought you could use it to complete your Pilgrimage." I said.

"I...thank you." Tali said.

Tali then started to tear up.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"I thought I lost you back on Virmire." Tali said with sorrow.

"Tali, your the woman I love. I couldn't just let your get hurt or killed like that. I didn't want to lose you. Me shielding you from that blast was the only way to save you." I said.

"I know it was, but you had me scared." Tali said.

"I didn't mean to scare you like that. I love you so much that I was willing to sacrifice myself to save you." I said.

"I love you too. I probably would've done the same." Tali said.

"You see? You probably would've scared me if you did that to save me." I said. "Now I'm gonna rest for a while. Okay?"

Tali took a moment to calm herself down and said "Okay"

I then fall into a deep sleep. I was going to need it for our mission. After all I'm gonna be down for a week. But my mind is still troubled by the past events. I don't know whether I can pull through or not.


	12. Chapter 12

**Alex was severely wounded on Virmire. He rests for a week before the Council calls for us at the Citadel. He wondered where Saren went after Virmire. Hopefully they would find him son enough. Warning! This chapter contains sexual content! Don't bash me too hard about the love scene. It's my first fanfic after all.**

I rest for a week in the med-bay. During those days I would wake up to see ceiling above me after having horrible dreams mostly about Torfan. I kept thinking that I was slowly losing it. Tali would come by to see me and we would talk. I didn't want to talk to her about Torfan. My mind is constantly clawed by the horrors of that battle. Most nights of the week I would pace at night thinking on and on about Torfan. I think about the horrible things I've done with my hands, and the friends I've lost. I didn't think it was time to tell Tali about that. We would talk about what's been happening lately, but morely about us. We both wanted to share ourselves before the final battle. Before the battle that would end our mission we wanted to make our time count. I was up and about after a week. I went to see Shepard to find out why the Council wanted to see us.

"Hey, John." I greeted him.

"Hey, Alex. I'm glad to see you up and about." Shepard said.

"I figured a rocket blast wouldn't keep me down forever." I said.

"Good. I need you up and going to meet with the Council. They want us back at the Citadel." Shepard said.

"What do they want?" I asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll have to find out. Also we found out where the Conduit is. It's on Ilos." Shepard said.

"How did you find that out?" I asked.

"Liara linked our minds again. We did it while you were sleeping. She's been to Ilos once before." Shepard said.

"Alright. I'll be down in engineering if you need me." I said.

"Alex." Shepard said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I'm sorry about Kaiden. He was a good marine who got the job done. Can't ask for more than that." Shepard said.

"I know." I said "He'll be remembered by future generations."

"He certainly will be." Shepard said.

I head down to engineering to talk to Tali. I enter engineering to find Tali at her usual spot. I walk up to her and she turned to notice me.

"Hey." I greeted her.

"Hey, Alex. It's good to see you out of bed. I've been...thinking about you know..." Tali trailed off.

I immediately knew where see was going "I know what you're thinking. I've been thinking about that as well. The real question is 'Where are we gonna do it?'."

"I'm sure we'll think of someplace." Tali said.

Then Joker talks over the intercom "Kampfer, we're at the Citadel. Shepard needs with him for the meeting."

"Dammit." I muttered "I'll be right up, Joker."

"It's okay. Go. I'll be here." Tali said.

I gave her a nod and head up to the airlock. Me, Shepard, Ashley, and Garrus exit the Normandy and head to Citadel Tower. On our way there we encounter our fan Conrad Verner.

"Hey, Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer." Conrad said.

"Hello, Conrad." Shepard said.

"I have an idea and I wanted to run it by you." Conrad said.

"Sure. What's on your mind?" I asked.

"With so many human colonies being attacked, I don't think one spectre is enough. What if you signed me on as another spectre?" Conrad asked.

"Why would you want to be a spectre, Conrad?" Shepard asked.

"I want to show the Council what humanity can do. I'd make a great spectre. I want to be there fighting the good fight like you two on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz. Or like Kampfer did on Torfan." Conrad said.

As soon as those words left his mouth, I immediately had a flashback of Torfan. I saw my friend Jimmy getting blown to pieces and many men getting shot. I then find myself pointing my gun in Conrad's face.

"Woah! Alex, take it easy!" Shepard yelled.

"There are no good fights! There are only brutal fights! Fights that cost the lives of your friends! Fights that cost your life!" I yelled as I shed tears.

"Please, don't hurt me! Why are you doing this?" Conrad asked as he freaked at the barrel of my pistol.

"I'm no hero. I'm a fucking monster. I'm a tool of destruction." I said as tears roll down my cheeks.

"For God's sake! Alex, you're losing it! Why can't you conquer your nightmares? Why do you let it hurt you?" Shepard questioned me.

I thought about it. I let my past nightmares control me. I thought about my friends and asked myself _"Would they want me to do this? Would Kaiden want me to do this? Would they want me to turn into a monster? Would they want these nightmares to control?" _I turned into something I wasn't.

"Come on, Alex. Put it down." Shepard said.

I came to me senses and holstered the pistol. I realized what I have done and tried to fix it.

"I'm...sorry, Conrad. I just can't let you get killed. Not like my comrades did on Torfan. Being blown to pieces, bleeding out from a gunshot wound, or getting beaten to death in hand to hand combat. What about your wife?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Conrad said wiping away his tears of fear.

"The one thing that keeps us going out here is knowing that people back home are keeping humanity strong." Shepard said.

"You're...you're right. I got so caught up in it. I wanted to help. I'll go home. And I forgive you, Alex. I didn't know that Torfan was that brutal. You two are my heroes." Conrad said.

"I'm no hero, Conrad. I'm just another spectre doing his bit for the galaxy." I said.

We walk to the elevator that leads to Citadel Tower. We stand on the elevator and talk about me.

"Are you gonna be good for the mission?" Shepard asked.

"I think so." I said still trying to recover from the past situation.

"I'm worried that you're gonna lose it." Shepard said.

"I'll keep myself together. I can do this." I said.

"You better, or you might get yourself killed." Shepard said.

We exit the elevator to find a strange man waiting for us.

"Hello. Are you Commander Shepard?" the man asked.

"Yes. Who are you?" Shepard asked.

"I'm an agent working for the Shadow Broker. I'm sure that you are aware that the recently deceased Admiral Kahoku came to us for information on Cerberus." the agent said.

"Yes. But what do you want?" Shepard asked.

"The Shadow Broker knows that you extracted important Cerberus data from their base on Nepheron. The Shadow Broker wants that data. You will be compensated for the data." the agent said.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Shepard said.

"Why not?" the agent asked.

"I can't hand over that kind of information to a crime syndicate. It should go to the Alliance." Shepard said.

"I guess I'll go tell the Shadow Broker that. He will most displeased. Good day to both of you." the agent said as he walked off like nothing happened.

"The Shadow Broker employs some strange birds." I said.

"Yeah. Lets give this to Anderson." Shepard said.

We head up to see Captain Anderson waiting for us.

"Good you're here. The Council is waiting for you." Anderson said.

"Wait. Before we head up. I have some data for you to give to Alliance Command. It's data about Cerberus's harsh experiments." Shepard said.

"I'll make sure that this gets in the right hands." Anderson said.

"Lets head on up." I said.

We head up to see Ambassador Udina talking to the Council.

"Shepard, you're here. Good. We were talking about what actions to take against Saren." Udina said.

"He's right. If Saren is willing to attack the Citadel, we'll be ready for it." the asari councilor said.

"We have ships on patrol around the Citadel and every mass relay linking the Terminus Systems to Citadel space." the turian councilor said.

"You think a blockade is going to stop him. Saren is on Ilos looking for the Conduit right now." Shepard said.

"What are we gonna do about that?" I asked.

"Ilos is only accessible through the Mu Relay. That's deep within the Terminus Systems. If we send a fleet in, the only outcome of that action is war. We do not want a full scale war with the Terminus Systems." the salarian councilor.

"Now is the time for discretion, you two. Saren's greatest weapon was secrecy, but now he's exposed. He's no longer a major threat. This mission is over." Udina said.

"Send us in. One ship is not going to trigger a war. We'll be discrete" Shepard said.

"You detonated a nuclear device on Virmire. I wouldn't call that discrete." the turian councilor argued.

"You methods have helped you in the Traverse. We recognized that. But Ilos requires a soft touch. We have the situation under control." the asari councilor said.

"If Saren finds the Conduit, we're all screwed." Shepard said angrily.

"Ambassador Udina, I get the feeling that Commander Shepard is not going to let this go." the turian councilor said.

"There are serious political implications here, Commander. Humanity has made great gains because of you. But now you're becoming more trouble than you're worth." Udina said.

"Bastard! You're selling us out!" Ashley yelled.

"It's just politics. You've done your job. Now let me do mine. We've locked out the Normandy's primary systems until further notice." Udina said.

"Nobody stabs us in the back, Udina! You hear me? Nobody!" I yelled in anger.

"I think it's time for you to leave. This no longer concerns you. The Council will handle this with my help." Udina said.

We walk away from that meeting in anger. We were fucking pissed. Pissed off at the fact that fact that the negligence of the Council and Udina would get many people killed. We head back to the ship. I sit on a crate next to Tali talking about the situation.

"I can't believe it. We've been grounded. Now Saren is gonna find the Conduit and kill thousands maybe millions. Hell, he might even kill billions If he finds it. And the Council is just gonna sit back and let the fleet play as a blockade that won't even stop Saren from destroying the Citadel." I said in anger.

"I can't believe it neither. They're just going to let Saren find the Conduit. They don't seem to care that Saren, the geth, and Sovereign will wipe out their fleets in a single attack." Tali said in agreement. "But i'm morely worried about you. What happened back on the Citadel? Why did you point your gun in that man's face?"

I then figured that it was time that I told her about Torfan "We he made Torfan look like a good fight, I had a flashback to Torfan. I pointed my gun in his face, because I couldn't control the nightmares. The nightmares took over. But I had to tell him that there are no such things as good fights. I just flipped. I'm no hero. I'm just a fucking monster."

"You're not a monster. You're one of the first human spectres. You're a figure that people look up to. But most importantly, you're the man I love." Tali said.

"You don't get it. You don't know what happened on Torfan. You don't know why I'm this way." I said.

I then went into detail about Torfan. About the reckless decisions of my CO, about how my friends died, and mostly about the horrible things I did to the batarians. I had to make her understand. Understand why I'm so broken up about it.

"Keelah. That's...that's awful. I didn't know about that. I'm... sorry for not understanding that sooner." Tali said with a wide stare.

"Now you see why I'm so broken up. I hated myself for killing men like that. That's why I think I'm a monster." I said.

"You can't let it get in the way of the mission. You have to pull through." Tali said.

"Well, now I'm just wondering how we can get off of this port." I said.

"I'm wondering about how much time we have left. It's been clawing my mind. I want to...share myself...with you." Tali said.

"Do we have enough immunoboosters and supplements?" I asked "We already used several."

"Don't worry. I bought enough to allow me to take off my suit." Tali said.

I lean in to whisper something to her when Shepard comes running to us "Guys, Captain Anderson wants us to meet him at Flux."

"Why?" I asked.

"He says he has a way to get us off of this port. Come meet us at the airlock when you're ready." Shepard said before walking away.

"Alright." I replied. "Now where was I?"

"You were gonna say something to me about you know." Tali said.

"Right." I said "I want you. I want to share myself with you also. I love you."

"I love you too." Tali said "But where are we gonna do this?"

I think about it for a minute. I then start to eyeball the mako. I crack a smile at the sight. Tali looked to see that I was looking at the mako.

"You're not thinking..." Tali said.

"I sure am." I said smiling.

"You want to do it in the mako?" Tali asked.

"Why not?" I asked "Or would you rather make love in the middle of the engineering room?"

"It just seems odd." Tali said.

"It's a human thing to make love in a car." I said.

"The mako is not a car. It's a military vehicle." Tali said.

"I'm sure Shepard won't mind it." I said. "We'll talk about it later. Lets head up."

We head to the airlock with Shepard and Garrus, and exit the Normandy. We head to Flux and sat at a table with Captain Anderson.

"Commander. Lieutenant. I heard about what happened. I tried to warn you earlier, but I couldn't get a message out in time." Anderson said. "I know that you two are livid, but you can't give up now. You have to continue the mission. You have to go to Ilos. And you have to stop Saren from using the Conduit."

"There's only one ship that can get me into the Terminus Systems undetected. And she's grounded." Shepard said.

"The Citadel locked the Normandy's systems. But if we override the Ambassador's orders, we can bring the Normandy back online. You'll be in the Terminus Systems before anyone knows you're gone." Anderson said.

"What will happen to you?" I asked.

"Don't worry about me. You have to stop Saren from destroying all life in the galaxy." Anderson said.

"Thanks, Captain. We won't forget this." I said.

"I can unlock the Normandy's systems from one of the consoles in the Citadel's control center." Anderson said.

"They are armed guards patroling that area. How are you gonna get past them?" Garrus asked.

"I'll find a way. Or I could use the Ambassador's computer. He ordered the lockdown." Anderson suggested.

"The Ambassador is not gonna just stand there while you use his computer." Tali said.

"I'll have to think of something if he's there." Anderson said.

"Udina is not gonna let the slide. You'll be charged with treason, a capital offense." Tali said.

"We don't have any other options. Either I use the Ambassador's computer or I take my chances with the control center." Anderson said.

"You have a better chance if you go after Udina's computer." Shepard said.

"I was hoping you'd say that. The Ambassador has made this personal." Anderson said. "You ready to get the hell off of this station?"

"Yes." Shepard said.

"Are you ready, Lieutenant?" Anderson asked.

I look over at Tali and then I looked at Anderson "Yes, sir."

"I'll start the unlocking. You have Joker wait on stand by." Anderson said.

We head back to the Normandy and wait for the systems to unlocked. I wait in the cargo bay. We then start to move. The Normandy's systems were unlocked. Soon we were off to stop Saren and his army of geth. I then wait by the mako for Tali.

"Hey. I took the immunoboosters and herbal supplements. I should be able to take the whole suit. I'm ready to share myself with you. But the real question is 'Are you ready?'" Tali said.

I thought about it. She is my first and only love. I then thought about the mission that awaited us and said "Yes."

We get in the mako. I put down the back seats to increase the space. Then Tali takes off her visor and lunges at me. She was on top of me as she started to kiss me. After several seconds of kissing, separate our lips and Tali sits up.

"I can't wait any longer. I want to show you more." Tali said.

"Then show me more." I said smiling.

She slowly pulls her arms out of the suit. The suit is slowly pulled down her chest. I then help her pull her suit off her legs. Once the suit was off, I looked at her. She had the physique of any human women. Her greyish-purple skin is lit up by the light in the mako. It was a beautiful sight. I wanted her so badly. I was sick of the waiting. We've waited long enough for this.

"I want you so much." I said upon seeing her naked body.

"Then take me." Tali said smiling.

I take off my shirt, my pants, my boots, my socks, and my boxers. I place myself above her and I start to kiss her neck. My warm breath touches her neck and she moans. I feel the blood rush to my dick and I plunge it in her pussy. I thrust and she moans and groans for more. I continue to thrust into her. I feel a sweet sensation as I thrust into Tali. Then Tali pushes me on my back and starts to ride me.

"Oh Keelah! Yes! Yes!" Tali moaned as she rode me.

"Tali! You're amazing!" I groaned with pleasure.

We were rocking the mako around. I think the others knew the deal and stayed away from the mako. We then went to a doggystyle position and I thrusted into Tali. Her pussy squeezed tight around my dick. An amazing feeling indeed.

"Oh Yes! More!" Tali moaned with lots of pleasure.

I thrusted more and more. We then moved into a sitting position. My hands were on her buttocks as I lift her up and down on my dick. I then start to suck on one of her breasts.

"Oh Keelah! Don't stop!" Tali moaned.

I keep lifting her up and down on my dick as she moaned. A feeling of ecstacy went through our bodies as we kept going at it. We keep going and going without stopping. We finally reach climax.

"Oh! Taaaaalllliiiiii!" I groaned as I came inside her.

"Oh! Alex! Yeeeesss!" Tali moaned as she squirted.

I lie down on my back and Tali lies on her side next to me.

"That was amazing." I said in awe.

"I know it was." Tali said smiling.

I turn to see her beautiful white eyes and said "I can certainly tell that it was amazing for you."

"I should say the same for you." Tali said with a little giggle.

Tali looked at my body and saw the many scars I have gotten over my years of service.

"Did you get these throughout the entire mission?" Tali asked.

"No. Most of them are from Elysium and Torfan." I said.

Tali points to the scars on my legs and asks "Where did you get those?"

"On the front of my legs? I got those on Elysium. I was holding my position and I got hit several times." I said.

I then point to my left shoulder and said "I got hit here also. I didn't let these stop me from holding my position. I kept fighting like hell. Fucking pirates didn't expect the young 18 year old petty officer with no combat experience to wipe them out."

"Where did you get the ones on your stomach?" Tali asked.

"Torfan. It was the first time I ever got hit by a rocket. The shrapnel went into my stomach and chest." I said. "And as for the others...well, you know where I got those."

"I certainly do." Tali said "How much time do we have before the mission?"

"An hour. As much as I hate leave this position and abandon this beautiful site, we should probably get ready." I said with smile.

"I guess we should." Tali said.

We got our clothes back on and went to go get our gear. I put on my armor and holster my weapons. I then hear Joker over the intercom.

"Twenty minutes until we reach Ilos, Lieutenant." Joker said.

"Understood." I replied.

I head up to the bridge to see Shepard, Ash, and Pressly standing there as Joker was approaching Ilos.

"We have a problem. We can't find a place to drop you guys off in the mako." Pressly said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"There's no landing zone wide enough. The zone has to be a hundred meters. The biggest I can find is twenty." Pressly said.

"Find us another landing." Ashley said.

"There is no other landing zone!" Pressly yelled.

"I can do it." Joker said with determination.

"Joker?" Shepard asked.

"I can do it." Joker said again.

"We have no other option. If we don't go down there now, Saren will find the Conduit." I said.

"Lets do it." Shepard said "Alex, get Tali and Wrex ready."

"Right." I said before heading down to the cargo bay to find them ready.

We get into the mako and drop onto Ilos. The wind rushes past the mako as it drops. We hit the ground to find that Saren blocked our path with a door. We had to get out of the mako to engage the geth on foot. There were two armatures and several troopers waiting for us. We spread out to engage them. I take down the geth troopers before focusing on one of the armatures. I take cover behind a pillar with Wrex.

"I wear down it's shields. You hit it when they're down." I said.

"Right." Wrex said.

I use over kill to wear down the armature's shields. I wear them down and shout "Wrex! Now!"

Wrex fires a carnage blast that causes the armature to explode. We then see that Shepard and Tali are pinned down by the other armature and a couple destroyers that came by. We rushed over firing at the destroyers. I tag one of them before taking cover with Shepard and Tali. Wrex was still out in the open shooting at the destroyers. He kills them both before heading over to us. We all then pop out and put heavy fire on the other armature. It explodes sending pieces flying everywhere. We move on to find an old elevator. We go down into an old Prothean ruin to find several more geth waiting for us. There were two juggernauts, and four geth troopers. Wrex blasts away two of the troopers before I take down two more. Shepard and Tali then take down one of the juggernauts while I take out another trooper. Wrex uses carnage on the other juggernaut while Tali blasts away the last trooper. We move in to find an old console with a broken VI spewing a broken message.

"Have to hurry...the Reapers are coming...we have to prepare..." the VI said.

"I don't understand it. It sounds like nonsense." Tali said.

"It's a warning message. They were warning the other Protheans about the Reapers." I said.

"How did you understand that?" Wrex asked.

"Alex and I touched the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. Plus we have the Cipher. With those, we can understand the Prothean language." Shepard said.

"Oh." Wrex said.

"Hey, look. An old console." I said "Hmm. From the looks of it, this console controls some of the huge doors. I think I can unlock that huge door blocking that's blocking the mako. There. That should do it."

"Alright. Back to the mako. Double time." Shepard said.

We head back to see that more geth came by to stop us. There were two destroyers, two rocket troopers, and three troopers.

"Shit." I said before the geth fire at us.

I took cover behind a concrete wall with Tali while Shepard and Wrex took cover behind the wall on the other side of the room. I pop out and take down the two rocket troopers while Tali pops out tossing a grenade at the troopers. The grenade blows up the troopers and we went back behind the wall. Shepard uses overkill on his end to take down the destoyers. Then Wrex uses carnage to blow away one of the destroyers. The other one goes down from Shepard's fire. we then head back to the elevator. We then get out of the elevator and rush back to the mako. I get in the driver's seat while Shepard gets on the turret. Wrex and Tali sit in the back. I drive in the tunnel past the door. We encounter several geth rocket drones.

"Shit. Shepard, light 'em up." I said.

"Right." Shepard said.

Shepard began to fire at the rocket drones. One blows up while the others retreat further into the cave. We chase them as they retreat. Shepard destroys two more with the machine gun. The last one attempts to get close to us. Shepard blows it up in seconds. We then head further in the cave only to be trapped by two barriers. One in front of us, and one behind us. We wondered why there weren't any geth attacking us. We thought it was an ambush. We see a door that leads to a console. We get out of the mako to go investigate the console. A yellow hologram called Vigil pops up.

"You are not Prothean, but you are not machine either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why our warnings were sent through the beacons." Vigil said.

"It looks like a VI program. Pretty badly damaged." Tali said.

"I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon you. Unlike the other one who pasted here recently. Perhaps there is still hope." Vigil said.

"How come your not speaking the Prothean language?" Tali asked.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you have arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format that you can understand. My name is Vigil. You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, everyplace in the galaxy will not be safe fr anyone." Vigil said.

"Why did you summon us here?" Shepard asked.

"You must break a cycle that has been occurring for millions of years. But first you must understand, or you will make the same mistakes we did. The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and seat of government. As it was for us, and as it was to the civilizations that came before us. But it is however a trap. The Citadel is an enormous mass relay. One that links to dark space, which is the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizon. When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will come. And all you know will be destroyed." Vigil said.

"The Reapers can wipe out the Council and the entire Citadel fleet in a single surprise attack." Shepard said upon realizing what could happen.

"That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we knew that we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and with it, the mass relays. Communications and transportation across our empire were crippled. Each star system was isolated. We were made easy prey for the Reaper fleets. Over the next decades, the Reapers obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out." Vigil said.

"Why didn't you surrender?" Shepard said.

"Because no offer for us to surrender was made. The Reapers had one goal: exterminate all organic life in the galaxy. Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all of our records, maps, and census data. They knew everything about us through those. Their fleets advanced across the entire galaxy. Some worlds were destroyed. Others were conquered, and the populations on those worlds were enslaved. They indoctrinated their slaves and used them as sleeper agents. The agents betrayed their people. Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were brutal, and absolutely thorough." Vigil said.

"What can we do to stop this cycle?" I asked.

"The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind the mass relay technology. This facility was top secret. Researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that would link directly to the Citadel: the hub of the relay network." Vigil said.

"The Conduit's not a weapon. It's just a back door to the Citadel." Wrex said.

"How did you stay hidden?" Shepard asked.

"All officials records of our project were destroyed when the Reapers attacked the Citadel. While the Prothean Empire fell, Ilos was spared. We severed our communications with outside worlds and our facility went dark. The personnel retreated down here into these archives. To conserve resources, everyone was placed into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed. But the genocide of an entire species is a long, and slow process. My energy reserves dwindled down as years passed, decades, and centuries." Vigil said.

"You should've fought back." Wrex said.

"We were a few hundred against an entire galactic invasion fleet. Our only hope was to remain hidden. I began to take the staff off life support. Starting woth the support staff, then security. One by one, their pods were shut down to conserve energy. Eventually, the pods containing the top scientists remained active. Even these scientists were on danger of failing when the Reapers finally retreated back through the Citadel relay." Vigil said.

"There were hundreds of those pods. And you shut them down? You killed them?" Tali asked in anger.

"You were programmed to protect them. Not to kill them." Shepard said in anger upon hearing the fates of the remaining Protheans.

"This outcome was not completely unforseen. My actions were a result of contingency programming entered on my creation." Vigil said.

"I bet they didn't bother to tell the 'non-essential' staff that." Wrex said.

"I saved the key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive. My actions are the reason that any hope remains. When they woke up, they realized that our species was doomed. There were only a dozen individuals left, far too few to sustain a viable population. They vowed to find a way to break the cycle forever. Amd they knew that the keepers were the key." Vigil said.

"I still don't get it. Why is Saren looking for the Conduit?" Shepard asked.

"The Conduit gives him access to the Citadel and the keepers. The keepers are controlled by the Citadel. Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station compelling the keepers to activate the Citadel relay. After decades of study, the researchers found a way to alter the signal. Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made the modifications. This time, when Sovereign sent the signal to the keepers, they ignored it. The Reapers are trapped in dark space." Vigil said.

"Saren must have some sort of plan to undo your changes." I said.

"The one you call Saren will use the Conduit to bypass the Citadel's defenses. Once inside, he will transfer the control of the Citadel to Sovereign. Sovereign will override the Citadel's systems and manually open the relay. Then the extinction cycle will begin again." Vigil said.

"Is there any way to stop that?" I asked.

"There is a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign."

"Wait. I've never heard of a master control unit." Garrus said "Where do we find it?"

"Follow Saren. He will lead you to it." Vigil said.

"Saren's got enough of a head start. Grab the data and lets go." Shepard said.

"The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit. Not yet. There's still hope if you hurry." Vigil said before we got a copy of the data.

"Lets go!" I yelled.

We head back to the mako. We drove off to save the galaxy. We had to save the galaxy or die trying.

**Hey, guys. I apologize for pushing the Conard wanting to be a spectre this far. I wanted to use that part to have my character express his inner demons and fighting them off. I also apologize for the long conversation with Vigil. There was no way for me to shorten that. I might type up several more chapters before ending the story. I'll try to squeeze in the whole epic Citadel mission in the next chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13

We got into the mako after we got the data. I get behind the wheel and start to drive through the tunnel. We reach the end if the tunnel to see that there were a bunch of rocket drones, rocket troopers, destroyers, and juggernauts waiting. I then decide to drive through them like a maniac. I start to impersonate a nascar commentator.

"Ladies and gentleman. We're here at the Ilos racetrack. Alex Kampfer is waiting to start this whole show." I said impersonating a commentator.

"Oh God. Alex, you're not thinking..." Shepard trailed off as he got nervous.

"Keelah. No." Tali said with a wide eye stare.

"They wave the green flag! And he's off!" I yelled with a devious smile.

I take off while the others freak out. I run over several rocket troopers as I drive like a nascar driver. I find a large trench with lots of turns. I make those turns like it was a piece of cake. We then end up at the top of a hill. At the bottom was the Conduit. We finally found it after all this time. We saw Saren near it. He saw us and rushed through the Conduit. We saw that the Conduit was slowly closing. We had to hurry. I put the pedal to the metal and rushed off. The dozens of geth try to stop us. They try to shoot us, burn us, and blow us up. But they failed as we went flying through the Conduit. We end up at the Citadel as the many fleets are battling the geth fleets. We land upside down. We got out and went into an elevator when we saw Saren in another elevator heading towards Citadel Tower.

"Come on! We gotta get him!" I yelled.

We head into the elevator to go after him. We see the arms close as we see the real enemy. Sovereign. The ship descends onto the Tower. Nothing was in the Citadel except Me, Shepard, Wrex, Tali, Saren, Sovereign, and a lot of geth. Soon gravity decreases and the elevator shuts down.

"Well I guess we'll have to head up on foot." I said "Wrex, help me kick the glass off of this elevator door."

Wrex and I then kick the glass sending pieces of glass floating away. We walk up the wall heading towards the Citadel Tower. We encounter several geth troopers and a Juggernaut. We take down the troopers instantly. Then the juggernaut charges at me. I start to fire rapidly at the beast before Wrex blows it away. We move up to find a wide area with several huge turrets. We see a krogan warlord with a bunch of geth troopers. We take cover as they start to fire at us. I take cover behind one of the turrets with Tali. I pop out and take down three troopers. The krogan warlord launches a carnage blast at me, but it misses. Tali pops out launching a carnage blast of her own at the krogan. The krogan is blown away and I focus on the other troopers. Shepard and Wrex take down most of them before a dropship comes by. The ship offloaded a couple of destroyers, a couple of snipers, a couple of juggernauts, and another krogan warlord.

"Shit!" I yelled in anger at the sight.

I take out my sniper and tag one of the geth snipers before taking cover behind the turret. I look to see a computer connected to the turret.

"Tali. Can you get this turret working?" I asked her.

"Sure!" Tali yelled as she ran to the computer.

She started to work on the computer. Within a minute the turret was launching rockets at the dropship. I saw that there were two more turrets.

"Tali! Do you think you can run to those two other turrets and get them working?" I asked her.

"Sure! But I'll need covering fire!" Tali yelled.

"Alright! I yelled "Shepard! Wrex!"

"Yeah?" Shepard asked over his earpiece.

"Can you and Wrex help me provide covering fire for Tali? She's gonna run to the other two turrets and get 'em working!" I yelled.

"Sure thing!" Shepard yelled.

Shepard and Wrex start to put heavy fire on the geth. I start to fire at the geth as well.

"Go! Go! Go!" I yelled to Tali.

She dashes across the open area as the rounds whizzed past her. She was like a fox dashing across a field. She didn't get hit once. Tali reaches the computer for one of the turrets. She turns on the turret and it starts to shoot rockets at the dropship. Tali then runs to the other computer and starts up the last turret. The turrets launch rockets at the dropship as we shoot up the destroyers, juggernauts, the sniper, and the krogan warlord. The dropship is finally destroyed and the huge chunks of metal crush the leftover geth in the area.

"Good work, Tali." Shepard said.

"Thanks." Tali said.

"Lets keep moving. We have to get to the Tower." I said.

We head towards another open area, but this time there were deploy-able barriers and geth turrets. There were a dozen geth troopers, and half a dozen snipers. We take cover behind a big ramp. I pop up with my sniper rifle and take out two snipers. I take cover when a rocket from one of the geth turrets is launched.

"Fuck! How are we gonna take those things out?" I yelled.

Shepard peers his head up to find a way to take out the geth turrets.

"Alex. I want you to go over to that ramp on the right. I'll take Tali and Wrex. We'll hit them from the left. When they're distracted you take them out." Shepard told me.

"Sounds like a plan." I said "I'm off!"

I dash over to the other ramp while getting shot at by every geth in the area. I reach the ramp and take cover. Shepard and the others begin to draw the geth's fire. I pop up from my cover and take out on the turrets with a well placed shot. I then take out two of the geth snipers before getting back into cover. Shepard and the others had already taken out six of the geth troops when I got over here. I pop up again and shoot another turret. I also took out another sniper before taking cover again. I look over to see the Shepard, Tali, and wrex had finally killed off alll of the troopers. Now they were focusing on the snipers. They tag two of the snipers before I pop up once more. I take out the last sniper. I then look to see a rocket coming my way.

"Holy shit!" I yelled before ducking.

The rocket explodes near me, but I didn't get wounded this time. I pop up to shoot the last turret. I fire off a shot that caused it to explode. Pieces of metal floated everywhere due to the lack of gravity.

"Alex! You good?" Shepard asked from a distance.

I gave him a thumbs up to signal that I was okay. I regroup with the others and we heads to the Tower. We found a working elevator and got in. We head up to Citadel Tower. We got out of the elevator to see Saren at the master control unit which is where we stood when we became spectres. All this time and it was right there. Saren saw us coming and threw several biotic blasts. We took cover behind the walls.

"I was afraid that you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard." Saren said.

"In time for what?" Shepard asked.

"In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control over the Citadel's systems. The relay will open and the Reapers will return." Saren said.

"I still got a few tricks up my sleeve!" Shepard yelled.

"You survived our fight on Virmire, but I've improved myself sine then. Sovereign has upgraded me." Saren said.

"You let Sovereign implant you? Are you insane?" Shepard asked.

"You don't understand, Shepard. Organics do have a new place in the new order. The Reapers need men and women of action. People like us. Sovereign recognizes your value. You've impressed it. Surrender to the Reapers. Join us and there will be a place for you." Saren said deviously.

We soon realized that Sovereign was controlling Saren through his implants. It made sense. Saren is under Sovereign's control, being used like a puppet.

I then yell out "You're blind, Saren! Sovereign is controlling you through your implants!"

"The relationship is symbiotic. Organic and synthetic races intertwined. A union of flesh and steel. The strengths of both and the weaknesses of neither. I'm a vision of the future, Kampfer. I'm the evolution of organic life. Join Sovereign and we'll experience a new way of organic life." Saren said denying the fact that he might've been indoctrinated.

I then yell out "You're still blind! The Reapers don't need us organics. They just discard us and they'll do the same to you when the conquest is over! Sovereign will stab you in the back and you'll will be disposed like every other organic!"

Then Saren yells back at me "I had no choice! You and Shepard saw the visions on Eden Prime! You saw what happened to the Protheans! Surrender or die!"

"This isn't over! You can still fight it! You still have a chance to fight back!" I yelled.

"Maybe...maybe you're right. Maybe there is still a chance for...ugh..aaaarrgghhh...aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggg hhhhhhhh! The implants! Sovereign is too strong. It's too late for me." Saren said.

"You still have a chance to make this right! Take that chance!" I yelled.

"I will. Goodbye, Shepard. Goodbye, Kampfer. Thank you." Saren said before putting his pistol to the side of his head.

He squeezed the trigger and the bullet went through his skull instantly. He fell into a gardening area and we head towards the master control unit. We look down at the corpse of Saren that now lays on a garden.

"Make sure he's dead." Shepard said.

I gave him a nod and I head down with Tali and Wrex. We arrive at the garden and we approach the corpse. Wrex pulls out his pistol and plugs a round throught the skull of Saren's corpse.

"He's dead." I told Shepard over my communicator.

All of a sudden we feel a violent rumble and Shepard falls of the platform and into the garden. Then we see Saren's corpse rise.

"What the fuck?" I ask myself upon seeing the corpse stand.

The skin on the corpse melts off and turns into a metal skeleton. Sovereign had taken control of Saren's corpse. I take out my asault rifle and begin to fire at the skeleton. It starts to jump around like a geth striker. I clings to the wall on the left and starts to launch fireballs at us. I dodged them by jumping over to my right. I use overkill on the skeleton. It then bounces to the ceiling and luanches more fireballs. We all take cover behind a wall in the room.

"God dammit! What's it gonna take to destroy that fucking thing?" I asked in anger as the fireballs explode near us.

Shepard peers over to see the skeleton jump back to the left wall.

"Alex. You and I will distract by hitting it with overkill. Tali and Wrex will hit it a carnage blast when it's focused on you and me." Shepard said.

"Alright. On three. One. Two. Three!" I said as we came out from our cover started to use overkill on the skeleton. As we fire, the skeleton jumps over to our right. Finally we had it pinned. Tali and Wrex came out firing off a couple of carnage blasts. The skeleton sent flying across the room. We looked to see that the skeleton wasn't moving. I moved closer and closer to it as the others stayed behind.

"You better be dead, you son of a bitch." I said.

Just then the skeleton pops up and tackles me.

"Holy shit!" Shepard yelled.

"Keelah! It's gonna tear him apart!" Tali yelled with worriness.

"Dammit! I can't get a clear shot!" Wrex yelled.

I wrestled with the skeleton. We rolled to the left and then to the right.

I yell at the thing "Got off of me, you metal bastard!"

The skeleton still wrestled with me. I take out a grenade and said "Ah, fuck it."

"What the hell are you doing?" Shepard asked upon seeing my grenade.

"Keelah! Don't do it!" Tali yelled.

I activate the grenade and shove it in the rib cage of the skeleton. I manage to push the skeleton off of me and I ran to the others. The grenade goes off, blowing the skeleton apart. Finally. It was dead.

"So it's dead then?" Tali asked.

"I would say so." I said while laughing.

"I would have to agree with him on that." Wrex said with a chuckle.

"Come on. Lets head back to the master control unit." Shepard said.

We head back to the master control unit and upload the data Vigil gave us. We had temporary control over the Citadel. When then hear a distress call over our communicators.

"Mayday! This is the Destiny Ascension! Kinetic barriers are down to forty percent! We have the Council on board! Repeat! The Council is on board!" an asari yelled.

"Commander! Please, God! Let that be you!" Joker yelled.

"It's me, Joker. What's your status?" Shepard asked.

"We heard the distress call. I'm here in the Andura sector with the entire Arcturus fleet. We can save the Ascension. Just unlock the relays and we'll send the cavalry in." Joker said.

"Are you crazy? This is bigger than anything we've faced. Now they want us to sacrifice human lives?" Tali asked with astonishment.

"What do you think, Alex?" Shepard asked.

"It's up to you. I decide for you. Make the right choice." I said.

Shepard thought about it. He stood there clenching his fists. His desicion would cost lives either way.

"Joker, I'm opening the relays. Save the Ascension...no matter what the cost. Then go after Sovereign." Shepard said.

"Aye aye." Joker said.

"I hope those Council bastards appreciate this." Wrex said.

We then hear Admiral Hackett's voice over our communicators.

"Alliance ships. Save the Ascension. Move in!" Admiral Hackett said.

We hear the battle outside. We hear the sounds of ships being blown to pieces. After ten minutes of explosions, we hear that the Ascension is safe. We then open the arms of the Citadel. The arms open and we see the Normandy and the Arcturus fleet come in. Soveriegn starts to blast some of their ships. We see chunks of metal float around in space as the ships blow up. It was a hurtful sight. Three of my friends were killed when Sovereign blew them up. Alphonse Morrello and Samuel Hendricks, who served with me on Torfan, were on the Warsaw when it blew up. Gary Dianes, who served with me on Elysium, was killed when the Shenyang was destroyed. I couldn't stand the sight of so many of our ships being destroyed before my eyes. I wanted to look away, but then I saw the Normandy. The Normandy lands a critical hit upon Sovereign. Sovereign starts to release its grip of the Tower. The fleet starts to hit it with all the firepower they had. Sovereign was blown to pieces. We began to cheer as Sovereign exploded. But we failed to notice that a pieces of Sovereign's leg was flying towards us. I then see it at the last second.

"Oh shit!" I yelled before the pieces plunged into our area.

We are sent flying and I blackout when I hit the ground. After a half hour, I hear the voices of Captain Anderson, Tali, Shepard, and Wrex in my unconscious state.

"Come on, Alex. Come on." Anderson said.

"Come on. Don't die on us. Don't die on us now." Shepard said with sorrow.

"Keelah! Alex, don't leave me! Don't!" Tali yelled as she began to cry.

"Come on, Alex. You've been through worse." Wrex said.

"Come on, marine! Wake up!" Anderson yelled.

In my unconscious state, I see people that we have lost. Admiral Kahoku, my parents, Alphonse, Samuel, Gary, Jimmy, and Kaiden. They start to talk to me.

"You did good, Alex. That's why I liked your grit. You were always a good marine. Now get up." Admiral Kahoku said.

"Alex, we fought on Elysium together. We survived considering that we didn't have any real combat experience at the time. Get up. You're tougher than this. They didn't give you the Star of Terra for nothing." Gary said.

"Alex, we survived Torfan. You know it was a bloodbath. Now don't let a flying chunk of metal keep you on your ass forever." Alphonse said.

"You surived hell, Alex. I didn't surive and I know it still claws your mind. Don't let it. It's not your fault. You've caught about half a dozen rockets in your life. Don't let this chunk of metal keep you down. Get up." Jimmy said.

"Remember, Alex. I had to keep you moving as we went through that compound. We did horrible things, but don't let it destroy you. Do it for us." Samuel said.

"Alex, you and I have served on the Normandy for 3 years. I know you. Gary's right. You are tougher than this. I died on Virmire to make sure that bomb went off. If I was tough enough to do that, you should be tough enough to handle getting hit by a big piece of metal. Get up." Kaiden said.

"Alex, we were always proud of you. I'm happy that you followed your father and grandfather's footsteps. Please get up. For Tali. For us." my mother said.

"Hey, son. I'm proud that you became a spectacle in the Alliance. My dad felt the same way when I came home from the First Contact War. You've done good things and bad things. Don't let the bad things destroy you. I taught you to be tougher than this. You know that. Get up. For Tali. For your mother and I. And for your friends." my father said.

"Get up!" they all yelled.

I wake up as my eyes pop open. I start to inhale and exhale like crazy.

"Woah! Take it easy, Alex." Anderson said.

"Jeez, I thought we lost you." Shepard said extending his hand to pull me up.

He pulls me to my feet. It takes my a moment to recover.

"Oh God. That was crazy." I said.

I turn to see that the entire Normandy crew assembled near me.

"You guys really thought I was dead?" I asked.

"Yeah! You weren't breathing or anything. So we thought you were dead." Joker said.

"Goddess! Will you be alright?" Liara asked.

"I'll be fine." I said.

"You've got a quad on you." Wrex said smiling.

"Humans have a pair, Wrex." I corrected him.

"Whatever. What matters is that you're alive." Wrex said.

"You had us all scared, LT. Good to know that you're still with us." Ashley said.

"You're a tough one to put down, Alex. You certainly had Tali scared." Garrus said.

"Tali. Where is she?" I asked.

"Over there." Garrus said pointing to bench to our left.

I walk over to the bench to see Tali crying. She believed that I was dead.

"Keelah. Why did he have to leave me? Why so soon?" Tali said as she cried.

"I'm not leaving you, Tali." I said.

Tali pops her head up to see me. she jumps up and hugs me "Keelah! I thought I lost you."

"I thought I was gone too. But I came back. I couldn't leave you. Never." I said as I embraced her.

I turn my head to see the crew looking at us.

"Come on. We better leave the two love birds alone." Shepard said.

They all leave. It was just me and Tali. We were still embracing each other. I was happy that I came back. I couldn't leave her. Not like that.

"I guess we'll have a lot of spare time now that Sovereign is destroyed." I said.

"But what about the Reapers?" Tali asked.

"Well we did just sabotage their only quick way to galaxy, so I'm sure they won't be arriving for a long while." I said.

"I guess you're right. Lets try to make the most of our time together." Tali said.

"Okay." I said.

We then head over to where Shepard was to see him with Captain Anderson, Ambassador Udina, and the Council.

"Captain. Ambaasador. Commander. Lieutenant. We gathered you here to recognize the actions of the Alliance forces against Sovereign and the geth." the asari councilor said.

"Many humans lost their lives during this battle. Brave soldiers who were willing to give their lives so that we might live." the salarian councilor said.

"There is no greater sacrifice. We share you grief for the noble men and women who died." the turian councilor said.

"The Council owes you two a great debt. One that we could ever repay. Not only did you save our lives, but the lives of billions from Sovereign and the Reapers." the asari councilor said.

"Commander Shepard. Lieutenant Kampfer. Your actions are a symbol of what humanity and the Alliance stand for." the salarian councilor said.

"And though we can not bring back the lives of those valiant soldiers who gave their lives to save ours. We will honor their memories and actions." the turian councilor said.

"Humanity has shown that it ready to be a defender and protector of the galaxy. You have proved your worthiness of joining the Council." the asari councilor said.

"As ambassador on behalf of humanity and the Alliance, we thank you for this honor and humbly accept." Udina said.

"We will need a list of candidates for this seat." the salarian councilor said.

"Given all that has happened, I'm sure your recommendation will carry a great deal of weight." the asari councilor said "Do you support a particular candidate?"

"We need someone who has the courage to stand up for what he believes in. Someone like Captain Anderson." Shepard said.

"Him? You must be joking. Anderson prefers to let his fists do the talking." Udina said in disbelief.

"Only with you, Ambassador. Only with you." Anderson said.

"Are you sure about this, Shepard? Anderson's a soldier not a politician." Udina said.

"We already have too many politicians on the Citadel. The Captain is perfect for the job." Shepard said.

"I think it's an inspired choice. The Council will welcome him with open arms, should he accept." the asari councilor said.

"I'm honored, councilor. As humanity's representative, I will help the Council rebuild." Anderson said.

"Sovereign's defeat marks the beginning of a new era. For both humanity and the Council." the turian councilor said.

"It's not over yet. The Reapers are still in dark space. There are hundreds maybe thousands. Me and Alex are gonna find a way to stop them." Shepard said as he walked away.

Me and Tali follow Shepard back to the Normandy. Celebrations were held several days after. And boy that was fun. But we also had to worry the Reapers. They were waiting in dark space and we had to stop them.

**Alright guys, I'm loosening the pipes. You're now allowed to review my story. Sure I've had reviews in the past, but now it's official. Don't be too harsh. Like I said it's my first fanfic. I will put up several more chapters before ending the story. Don't worry. I have more stories to come.**


	14. Chapter 14

**This is it. The last chapter. I will have sequels. Alex and the Normandy crew now have some down time after the battle of the Citadel. Celebrations were held severals days after.**

It was several days after the attack on the Citadel when celebrations were held in honor of me and Shepard. From the Wards to the Presidium, people swarmed the entire Citadel. Shepard and I were at the Tower standing on a raised platform in our naval dress uniforms as people snap our pictures. My Star of Terra and other medals sit over my heart and I begin to wonder when we could get down.

"When do you think we'll get the hell down from here?" I whisper to Shepard.

"We're probably gonna be here for a while." Shepard whispered back.

After an hour of people snapping photos, we finally got down from the platform. So many people came to shake our hands. We went from being spectacles of the Alliance to spectacles of the human race. I managed to slip out of the crowd to go find Tali. I find her Tali leaning her should against a metal pillar.

I approach her from behind "Hey."

"Oh! You scared me." Tali said upon hearing my voice.

"I got something here for us." I said flashing a key.

"What's the key for?" Tali asked.

"I managed to get us a room at one of the best hotels on the Presidium. Having a hero status kinda helps with stuff like that." I said flashing a smile.

"Wow." Tali simply said.

I lean into her and asked "Ready for round two?"

"Your on, Lieutenant." Tali said in a kinky way.

"Good. Meet me at the Citadel Tower hotel in a half hour." I said.

"Understood." Tali said.

Then Shepard comes up to me after Tali leaves.

"Hey, Alex. Why did you leave so soon?" Shepard asked.

"Because I needed to get away from those people. Those camera flashes were blinding me. Plus I wanted some alone time with Tali, if you know what I mean." I said.

"I know what you mean. I was thinking about spending some alone time with Liara." Shepard said.

"I thought you were interested in Ash." I said.

"Well, I chose Liara." Shepard said.

"When did this happen?" I asked.

"While you were recovering from your wounds you got on Virmire. I got cornered by both of them." Shepard said.

"Wait, you were wooing both of them?" I said with a chuckle.

"Yeah. But they found out about the whole thing, so they cornered me. I was mostly happy that it didn't turn into a catfight." Shepard said rubbing the back of his neck.

"You should be. You should be happy that Ashley didn't tear you a new one." I said.

"Yeah. Anyways, I'll let you go about your...business." Shepard said as he walked away.

"See ya, John." I said.

I head to liquor store to get some 'medicine' for me and Tali. I approach the cashier to ask him what kind I should get.

"Hello, I..." I was cut off by the cashier.

"Wow! Your Alex Kampfer aren't you?" the cashier asked upon my face.

"That's me." I said with a smile.

"What could a cashier of a liquor store do for one of the men who fought off the geth do for such a prestigious figure like you?" the cashier asked.

"Well, I need a good scotch blended whiskey for me and...my lover. Something with a little vanilla and honey taste to it." I said leaning against the counter.

"I didn't know you had a lover. I guess all of those women will be dissappointed." the cashier said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ever since you and Commander Shepard became the first human spectres, you've drawn a lot of attention from the ladies. They constantly gossip about how they would get you." the cashier said.

"I didn't expect us to draw so much attention." I said.

"What woman wouldn't want to date the posterboys of the Alliance?" the cashier said.

"I wouldn't know. Anyways, the whiskey." I said getting back to the matter of the whiskey.

"Right. Come with me." the cashier said as we head to the back of the store.

"It needs to be good for humans and quarians." I said.

"You're with a quarian? The ladies are gonna be pissed. Most people look down on the quarian." the cashier said.

"Let them gossip. I don't care what others say about the quarians. I have no shame in loving a quarian." I said.

"I approve. I'm not xenophobic or anything like that." the cashier said searching the shelves.

"I never caught your name." I said.

"Me? I'm Henry McNeilly. I believe you know my son Donny." the cashier said.

"Your Donny's dad?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Well, it's good to finally meet you. I haven't seen your son since Torfan. And that was five years ago."

"My son spoke highly of you after he came home. He said that people called you the Tiger of Elysium."

"I've been called that for years, now people are gonna call me the Saviour of the Citadel."

"Well, it's good to have you in my store. Here, try this." Henry said giving me a bottle "It's my family's brand. It'll be good for your quarian lover."

"Thanks." I said "Well, I gotta go. I can't keep my lover waiting."

"Alright. It was good meeting you, Alex. And take the whiskey. It's on me."

"Thanks. Tell your son I said hi."

"Okay."

I head out to go to the hotel. I find Tali waiting outside of the hotel pacing back and forth.

Tali then spots me "Oh, there you are."

"Hey, baby." I said as I hugged her.

"I was worried about going in on my own. I saw some people giving me dirty looks." Tali said as she clenched me.

"Don't worry. I don't care what they think. I care about you. Now lets head up." I said with a little smile.

"Okay." Tali said.

I walk in with my arm around Tali's waist. Tali's hands were shaking. She was nervous about being the only quarian in the entire hotel.

I whisper to her "It's okay. Don't be nervous. As long as you're with me, people will look the other way."

"Thanks. It's just that being a quarian, and the whole geth ordeal. People look down on us. And I can't believe that no one is objecting to the fact that you're bringing me in here." Tali said as she looked at several women giving her the evil eye.

We reach the elevator and head to the top floor. The elevator doors open to show a beautifully designed hallway. Flowers were painted on the walls, the carpet show a tan vine on it, and there were even some old chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

"Come on. My room is at that end on the left." I said.

"Wow. I've never seen a place like this." Tali said in awe.

"Neither have I." I said.

We enter my room. The room was huge. There was a beautiful king sized bed in a big bedroom. The walls had a similar design to the flowers in the hallway. Gold doors, beautiful dressers, a fancy shower, and a balcony that gave a beautiful view of the Presidium.

"Welcome to my little palace." I said as if I was a king.

"Wow. This is quite a palace you got here my king." Tali said in a joking way.

"I figured if we were gonna this month off, I thought that you and I should have a nice place to stay." I said.

Tali thens pops off her visor and walks up to me and said "Well, you certainly picked the right place."

We then brought our lips together and begin to kiss. I put my whiskey on the table next to us and then bring my hands to Tali's hips. It was good thing nobody else was in the room to see us go at it. We then pull our lips away.

"I'm glad that you're pleased." I said with a smile "I'm gonna go take a shower and then we can spend some quality time together."

"Don't take too long." Tali said with smile.

I took off my uniform and went into the bathroom. I saw that there was a huge mirror in the bathroom. I looked at myself to see the many scars I had. All of sudden every moment of my life flashed before my eyes. The massacre on Mindoir, the Skyllian Blitz, the bloodbath on Torfan, the mission where I sniped the biotic extremists, and the whole mission to take down Saren. The flashbacks of friends dying tormented my mind. After everything I've done, I couldn't find anything to get it out of my head.

"Why me?" I asked myself as tears start to roll down my cheeks "Why did I have to survive those horrid battles? Why did my friends have to die in such gruesome ways?"

I then turn on the shower. I get in once the water was warm. It felt good to finally have a real shower. My mind was still replaying the moments of friends dying. I press my head against the wall as I begin to remember the ships being blown to pieces by Sovereign.

"Why am I still here?" I asked myself as the memories clawed my mind "I should be dead like the others."

"No, you shouldn't be dead." Tali said standing behind me naked.

I didn't notice her coming in. I turn to look at her and said "I can't stop thinking all of the deaths I've witness throughout my life. Part of me wishes that I was dead so I wouldn't have to think or dream about it."

"You're still hurting. After everything we've done to save others, your mind still replays those moments of death." Tali said as se began to hug me.

"You're the only thing in my life that helped fight off some of those memories. They still come to my mind, but you've made them come less often." I said "You're my only comfort in life."

"I know." Tali said.

We began to kiss again. I then lift her up and she wraps her legs around my waist. I feel the blood rush to my dick and I plunge it into her pussy. I press her against the shower wall and begin to thrust into her.

"Oh yes. Keep doing me like this." Tali said with pleasure.

I began to kiss her neck as I thrust into her. She moans with pleasure as I begin to nip at her neck. It felt good to have some privacy. No one to barge in us nor hear us. Just me and Tali.

"Keelah. Keep going. Don't stop, Alex." Tali moaned.

Her back still against the wall. The water pours down upon us as I thrust into Tali. We keep going and going.

I then set Tali on her feet. She then turns around and bends over. I plunge my dick in her ass and begin to hump her.

"You like that, baby?" I asked.

"Yes! Don't stop!" Tali yelled with pleasure.

I humped her more and more and more. I groaned as a feeling of ecstasy went through my body. I lean forward and grab Tali's breasts as I hump. Her breasts fill my hands as my chest touches her back. I then begin to kiss her back and she moans. I then start to lick her back. I run my tongue up to her neck. Tali lets out a loud moan. Soon I was almost finished.

"Oh Tali! I'm gonna cum!" I yelled with pleasure "Aaaahhhhhhhh!"

"Keelah! Aaaaallllllleeeeexxxxx!" Tali yelled as we both reached climax.

We both kissed after that. Later we find ourselves in the luxurious bed in our room. We slept peacefully that night. No worries. No threats. Just us. As hours passed I slept with no nightmares. I was sure that they would come back. Maybe in another night or two. A knock came at the door.

"Who the hell is that?" I asked.

"What time is it?" Tali asked.

I look over at the clock to see that it was six.

"Who could be at the door at six in the morning?" I asked as I got out of bed.

"Don't go. Stay here. They can come back later." Tali said putting her hand on my shoulder.

"It's best if I get it now or they'll be knocking for hours. Go back to sleep." I said putting a robe on.

I walk over to the door to see who it was. I open the door to see that it was Admiral Hackett.

"Good morning, Lieutenant." the Admiral said.

"Admiral Hackett? What are you doing here?" I asked rubbing my eyes.

"I just wanted to talk. Mind if I come in?" Admiral Hackett asked.

"No. Not at all. Just don't be to noisy. My girlfriend is sleeping." I said opening the door further.

"Alright." the Admiral said walking into my room.

The Admiral sits at a table in my room and I sit with him.

"How did you know that I was here?" I asked.

"Well, it wasn't hard to track down the Savior of the Citadel." the Admiral said.

"I take it that you didn't just come hear to talk my new heroic image." I said.

"No." the Admiral said "I came here to tell you that you're being promoted. You may be a spectre, but you're still Alliance."

I look over at Admiral Hackett "Are you serious?"

"Shepard got promoted from Lieutenant Commander to Commander this morning. You're being promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander. Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander."

"Thank you, sir." I said.

"Now if you'll excuse me I've got to attend a meeting with the brass." Admiral Hackett said before leaving.

I close the door and walk back to bed. I sit on the edge of the bed thinking about the promotion.

"What was that about?" Tali asked as she lied naked in bed.

"I got promoted to Lieutenant Commander." I said.

"That's great. You deserve it." Tali said.

"Thanks. Now lets go back to sleep." I said getting into bed.

_One month later_

We made our month count. That's for sure. Spending lots of time together. Drinking. Making love. We did that a lot. But all of this luxury had to end at some point. I woke up our last morning with Shepard at the door.

I open the door to see Shepard standing there "Hey, Alex. The Council's got a mission for us."

"I guessing it's geth related." I said.

"You knew it." Shepard said.

"Alright. I'll be down in a couple minutes." I said.

Within several minutes me and Tali were downstairs with Shepard heading to Citadel Tower. We arrive at Citadel Tower to see the Council waiting for us.

"Good. You're here." Anderson said.

"We called you two here for an important mission." the asari councilor said.

"What's going on?" Shepard asked.

"Within the month you've been on leave, we've had ships raid emplacements containing geth. Three ships have went missing while in the Amada system in the Omega Nebula cluster. We want you to investigate the area. If you can, find the missing ships." Anderson said.

"Seeing that you are Alliance, we figured that you would want to check it out." the salarian councilor said.

"Be careful out there. We don't know what's truly out in that area." the turian councilor said.

"We'll get it done." Shepard said.

"Good. Then this meeting is adjourned." the asari councilor said.

I start to worry about what will happen. Would we dissappear? Would we die? I didn't know. I paced back and forth at the docks as I thought about the mission.

"Alex?" Tali asked as she came walking up to me.

"Hey, Tali." I said still pacing.

"What are you so worried about?" Tali asked.

"I'm worried about what might happen on this mission." I said.

"We've been through worse. I'm sure we'll make it." Tali said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I hope." I said.

"Come on. Lets go." Shepard said "This mission will probably be a simple scan."

"I hope you're right about that." I said.

Oh we were wrong. Very wrong. It wasn't going to be a simple scan and go. It would bring hell upon us all. We wouldn't have been sure unless we went. So we went. The Normandy flew off into the emty void of the galaxy no knowing what we would find.

**Read and review, PM, whatever. I will try to get to work on the sequel as soon as possible. I know the ending isn't the best, but it was difficult to write it out. I promise to improve in the next story. Thank you so much for reading.**


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